1. An assessment is made of the reserve’s benefits within the no-take area of Su Pallosu (Western Mediterranean) and in its neighbouring fishing ground in the 12 years since its establishment.\ud 2. Using tag recapture data, Palinurus elephas were found up to 50km from the centre of the reserve.\ud 3. Experimental CPUE inside the no-take area indicated significant increases over time in both abundance and biomass. The percentage increase in biomass from 1997, the year before all forms of fishing were banned, to 2009 was about 500%. Commercial surveys performed in 2008–2009 in the surrounding areas showed a negative gradient of lobster CPUE with increasing distance from the border of the MPA. The most productive zone was located within about 6 km from the reserve boundary.\ud 4. The results show that, to date, adult spillover has aided local fishing. The small size of the study area makes it easy to record a significant biological response after the first year of protection. However, for a long-lived species such as P. elephas, a 12 year horizon can provide only partial evidence of these benefits

Community structure and faunal composition of bathyal decapod crustaceans off South‐Eastern Sardinian deep‐waters (Central‐Western Mediterranean) were investigated. Samples were collected during 32 hauls between 793 and 1598 m in depth over the 2003–2007 period. A total of 1900 decapod specimens belonging to 23 species were collected. Multivariate analysis revealed the occurrence of three faunistic assemblages related to depth: (i) an upper slope community at depths of 793–1002 m; (ii) a middle slope community at depths of 1007–1212 m and (iii) a lower slope community at depths greater 1420 m. In the upper and middle slopes the benthic (Polycheles typhlops) and epibenthic–endobenthic feeders (mainly Aristeus antennatus and Geryon longipes), which eat infaunal prey, were dominant, followed by the macroplankton–epibenthic feeders such as Acanthephyra eximia and Plesionika acanthonotus. In the deepest stratum, the most remarkable feature was the prevalence of macroplankton–epibenthic feeders (A. eximia and P. acanthonotus). A small percentage of the benthic deep‐sea lobster Polycheles sculptus was also present. The biomass presented higher values in the middle slope and declined strongly in the lower slope. There was no general pattern of mean individual weight/size versus depth among decapods, and the changes seemed to be species‐specific with different trends.

Data are provided related to the reproductive biology of a deep-sea lobster, Polycheles typhlops, caught in Sardinian waters between 400 and 1400 m depth. Analyses were performed on 1180 females and 935 males. In both sexes, the carapace length decreased markedly and regularly with increasing depth; the females proved to be prevalent at greater bathymetric depths. The temporal evolution of the gonadosomatic index, and of the percentage distribution of the various stages of ovarian development, did not reveal any clear seasonality in reproduction for the species

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It has been amply demonstrated that trawl fishing affects overall biomass, size and species structure of demersal fish communities, and an increasing number of studies are proving that this could have even greater unexpected effects on biological diversity. The aims of this study are: (1) to examine the temporal trends of several ecological diversity indices for middle-slope communities in specific locations within the Sardinian seas, which have been recently subject to increasing fishing capacity; and (2) to simulate the Shannon's entropy (H′) temporal trend, using a multiple linear regression, in order to investigate about the relationships between fishing effort and species diversity. The data come from 11 MEDITS trawl surveys (1994 to 2004). Temporal trends in fishing effort were analysed and ecological diversity indices were measured. Analysis was conducted for four areas (NW, NE, SE, SSW). Significant variations over time in both fishing pressure and ecological diversity indices were found for the southern zones. More precisely, the SE zone showed an increase in fishing effort (+120% in 2004), and a decrease of Shannon–Weiner's diversity. The SSW zone exhibited a 22.6% increase of fishing effort and a decrease of species richness. The best model of H′ incorporates species richness and fishing effort expressed as number of boats per trawling area. Our results seem to indicate that fishing pressure affected the species richness and the abundance of middle-slope species and that variation in ecological diversity indices differed with different levels of fishing effort.

We present the first data on the population structure, reproduction, and feeding ecology of Polycheles sculptus S. I. Smith, 1880 from the Sardinian sea. Samples were collected during experimental trawl surveys carried out in 2006-2007 in Sardinian waters, at depths between 1037 and 1598 m. A total of 72 specimens of P. sculptus, 31 males, 40 females, and 1 specimen of undetermined sex, was examined. The sex ratio of the whole sample showed a slight preponderance of females. No significant deviations from the expected 1 : 1 relationship were, however, found along the investigated depth range. A clear seasonality in reproduction was not determined. The species showed a high value of the stomach vacuity index (Cv). The diet was based on eight broad categories of preys, but no dominant prey was recognized. Females showed the greatest width in their diet, though Morisita's index indicated a large overlap between sexes.

We report data regarding the gonad development in females of Acanthephyra eximia Smith, 1884. Specimens were caught during\ud experimental surveys carried out in Sardinian waters between 500 and 1880 m. We employed for our analysis of the ovary development\ud both macroscopic observation and histologic analysis. According to the macroscopic observations, carried out on 491 specimens, six\ud developmental stages of the ovaries were identified. These were validated by histologic analysis, performed on a sample of 10 specimens\ud per stage, that allow us to describe different cell types. A table whith both macroscopic and histologic stages of the female gonad of A.\ud eximia are briefly summarized