The freshwater Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit (FISK) has been applied in 35 risk assessment areas in 45 countries across the six inhabited continents (11 applications using FISK v1; 25 using FISK v2). The present study aimed: to assess the breadth of FISK applications and the confidence (certainty) levels associated with the decision-support tool's 49 questions and its ability to distinguish between taxa of low-to-medium and high risk of becoming invasive, and thus provide climate-specific, generalised, calibrated thresholds for risk level categorisation; and to identify the most potentially invasive freshwater fish species on a global level. The 1973 risk assessments were carried out by 70 ? experts on 372 taxa (47 of

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The aquarium trade has been recognized as an important pathway for the introduction of invasive species around the world. This study investigates the availability of ornamental fish species in ten large-size, centrally positioned aquarium stores that control a large share of imports and the Hellenic market chain, and aims to provide a provisional checklist on the aquarium fish trade in Greece. For each recorded species, additional data concerning various aspects (e.g. natural environment, native range, established as aliens, conservation status and threats to humans) were collected from Fishbase, IUCN red list and the scientific literature. Overall, 326 fish species belonging to 64 families were reported according to the store labels. The majority of the species recorded were freshwater (66%), originating mainly from South America and Asia, while most of the marine species (26%) had primarily an Indo-Pacific native distribution. Among the freshwater fishes, Cichlidae and Cyprinidae were the dominant families with 64 and 27 species, respectively, while the family Acanthuridae dominated within the marine fishes with ten species. The vast majority of both freshwater and marine species (>90%) were tropical. Concerning the presence of alien species, 62 ornamental species have been established outside their natural range, with 22 of them positively confirmed as aliens in the European waters. Moreover, 25 species were listed in the critically endangered (CR), endangered (EN) and vulnerable (VU) categories of the IUCN red list. Even more surprisingly, for 192 species recorded, data were missing to assign their conservation status or had not been assessed at all. Finally, the majority of the species (84%) were harmless to humans. However, 35 species (11%) were recognised as potentially harmful (i.e. venomous, ciguatera poisoning, traumatogenic) and two were found to be poisonous if consumed. In conclusion, the aquarium fish sector in Greece is practically uncontrolled given the presence of: a) threatened species, b) species potentially harmful to humans and c) species capable of establishing non-indigenous populations, if released into the wild.

The invasion of non‐indigenous freshwater fish species is one of the most important threats to aquatic biodiversity. Similar to other Mediterranean countries, Greece is considered a hot spot for freshwater biodiversity, with many range‐restricted endemics of high conservation concern. The aim of this study was to undertake a risk screening assessment to evaluate the invasive potential of non‐native, translocated and traded aquarium fishes in Greece by applying the Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit (FISK). In total, 73 freshwater fish species were evaluated by two assessors. FISK was able to discriminate reliably between invasive and non‐invasive species with a threshold of 15.25. Based on mean scores, 30 species were classified as ‘high risk’, of which 17 as ‘moderately high risk’, six as ‘high risk’ and seven as ‘very high risk’. There was a high coincidence rate for the species categorisation between the two assessors, but significant differences in certainty. The results suggest that FISK is a useful tool for assessing risks posed by non‐native, translocated and traded aquarium fish species in Greece.

Indigenous freshwater crayfish species (ICS) are important biodiversity components and desirable fishery targets. However, ICS populations are increasingly threatened by various anthropogenic stressors. Moreover, established populations of non-indigenous freshwater crayfish species (NICS) and new ‘waves’ of NICS introductions exert significant pressure on ICS populations at a pan-European level. These effects include direct competition for space and resources as well as crayfish ‘plague’ transmission from introduced North American species. Given low public knowledge of this problematic, considerable risk of future introductions exist as a result of conventional and internet-based aquarium trade, which often lead to deliberate and/or accidental releases of NICS into the wild. In 2011, we conducted a survey of freshwater crayfish species in eleven large-size pet shops located in three major cities and in three large internet-based aquarium companies in Greece. Overall, eight species belonging to three genera (Procambarus, Cherax and Cambarellus) were recorded, originating from the USA, Australia, New Guinea and Mexico. The invasion potential of the three most popular species was assessed using the Freshwater Invertebrate Invasiveness Scoring Kit (FI-ISK). Two species were determined to constitute a ‘very high risk’ of invasion. As such, regulatory measures need to be implemented to monitor the ornamental trade of NICS in Greece and a national framework developed for protecting ICS.

The Collective Article ‘New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records’ of the Mediterranean Marine Science journal offers the means to publish biodiversity records in the Mediterranean Sea. The current article is divided in two parts, for records of alien and native species respectively. The new records of alien species include: the red alga Asparagopsis taxiformis (Crete and Lakonicos Gulf) (Greece); the red alga Grateloupia turuturu (along the Israeli Mediterranean shore); the mantis shrimp Clorida albolitura (Gulf of Antalya, Turkey); the mud crab Dyspanopeus sayi (Mar Piccolo of Taranto, Ionian Sea); the blue crab Callinectes sapidus (Chios Island, Greece); the isopod Paracerceis sculpta (northern Aegean Sea, Greece); the sea urchin Diadema setosum (Gökova Bay, Turkey); the molluscs Smaragdia souverbiana, Murex forskoehlii, Fusinus verrucosus, Circenita callipyga, and Aplysia dactylomela (Syria); the cephalaspidean mollusc Haminoea cyanomarginata (Baia di Puolo, Massa Lubrense, Campania, southern Italy); the topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva (Civitavecchia, Tyrrhenian Sea); the fangtooth moray Enchelycore anatine (Plemmirio marine reserve, Sicily); the silver-cheeked toadfish Lagocephalus sceleratus (Saros Bay, Turkey; and Ibiza channel, Spain); the Indo-Pacific ascidian Herdmania momusin Kastelorizo Island (Greece); and the foraminiferal Clavulina multicam erata (Saronikos Gulf, Greece). The record of L. sceleratus in Spain consists the deepest (350-400m depth) record of the species in the Mediterranean Sea. The new records of native species include: first record of the ctenophore Cestum veneris in Turkish marine waters; the presence of Holothuria tubulosa and Holothuria polii in the Bay of Igoumenitsa (Greece); the first recorded sighting of the bull ray Pteromylaeus bovinus in Maltese waters; and a new record of the fish Lobotes surinamensis from Maliakos Gulf.