Growth and feeding of stingray (Dasyatis pastinaca) were studied using 346 specimens from the Cilician Basin coastal area (northeastern Mediterranean). Age classes between 0 to XII were found. The total length of all specimens ranged from 14.6 to 100.9 cm, and total weight was between 22.5 and 6800 g. Total length (TL)-weight (W) and disc width (DW)-weight (W) relationships were W = 0.0033*L 3.1429 and W = 0.0039*DW 3.4914 , respectively. The age data, derived from central readings, were used to estimate the von Bertalanffy length and weight growth parameters. The results were L ¥ = 294.9 cm, W ¥ = 198690.1 g, K = 0.029 year )1 ; t 0 = )2.2 year. The D. pastinaca diet was composed mainly of crustaceans.

Summary Length–weight relationships (LWR) were estimated for 31 teleost fish species caught in the Babadillimani Bight on the western entrance of Mersin Bay, Turkey. Sampling was carried out from May 1999 to April 2000 at monthly intervals using bottom trawl nets of 6 mm cod‐end mesh size. The b values varied from 2.662 for Echelus myrus to 3.395 for Gobius niger, with a mean of 3.024 (±0.166). This study presents the first estimation of LWR for seven species (Blennius ocellaris, Centracanthus cirrus, E. myrus, Engraulis encrasicolus, G. niger, Synodus saurus, and Zeus faber) distributed along the northeastern Mediterranean coastal area.

The fish assemblages of the Eastern Mediterranean are highly variable owing to the Lessepsian migration. So far, there has been limited discussion about the temporal variation of Lessepsian populations, which may be a key to better understanding the establishment, persistence and spreading dynamics of these species. The objective of this study was, therefore, to develop an understanding of inter‐annual variations of Lessepsian fish populations through investigating the effects of climate conditions. For this purpose, we evaluated the data obtained from the seasonal bottom trawl surveys conducted over the course of 12 years, from 2004 to 2015, at the infra‐littoral zone of Iskenderun Bay. Our results indicated that Lessepsians constituted 27%, 62% and 85% of total teleost fishes in the number of species (LS‐%), biomass (LW‐%) and abundance (LN‐%), respectively. The linear trends showed that the dominance of Lessepsian fishes increased with annual rates of 1.9 (p < .01, LS‐%), 2.77 (p < .01, LW‐%) and 1.43% (p < .05, LN‐%) per year during the study period. In contrast, seasonal trend decomposition based on GAMMs revealed that the true shape of trends was non‐linear. The majority of the new Lessepsians entered the study area after 2009 when warmer conditions prevailed. Those new invaders such as Nemipterus randalli, Pomadasys stridens and Apogon smithi successfully settled in a short time and remarkably altered the composition of fish assemblages after 2010. We found that variations of lessepsian fish assemblages were correlated with the increase of annual minima and average values of sea surface temperature.

In this study, elasmobranch length-weight relationships were estimated for five species caught between June 1999 and May 2003 from the Cilician Basin shelf waters (Northeastern Mediterranean): Raja clavata, Raja radula, Raja asterias, Dasyatis pastinaca, and Gymnura altavela. There were no significant differences between males and females, and only Raja clavata females showed isometric growth.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the morphometric characteristics, growth, mortality and exploitation rate of the spiny butterfly ray (Gymnura altavela Linnaeus, 1758). The study was conducted using 284 specimens from the coastal waters of the Levant Basin (the northeastern Mediterranean). Samples were collected monthly between July 2014 and June 2015 using a bottom trawl from the following depth strata: 0-10m, 10-20m, and 20-50m. The following measurements were taken total length (TL), disc length (DL), disc width (DW) distance from nose tip to eye (NE), nose tip to mouth (NM, cm), width of mouth (MW, cm) where Y is the various dimensions (TL; W; DL; DW; NE; NM; MW, respectively) and X is the total length estimated by linear regression analysis. Length-weight and disc width-weight relationships were W = 0.097 * TL 3.2070 and W = 0.084 * DW 3.169 for total individuals. The von Bertalanffy growth function contained in DW was DW = 136.50cm K = 0.230 year -1 t 0 = -0.492year -1 for total individuals. The total mortality (Z) was 0.91year -1 , the natural mortality (M) was 0.41year -1, and the fishing mortality (F) was estimated to be 0.51year -1 . The exploitation rate (E) was calculated as 0.55 year -1 for all obtained individuals.