Tropical fish invade the Mediterranean Sea

The phenomenon is known as "tropicalization" and changing the census of the Mediterranean Sea. Researchers at the Oceanographic Center of the IEO Baleares have detected the presence of 38 new tenants in its waters. These exotic species from the Atlantic and Indian Ocean that have reached the Mare Nostrum attracted by rising water temperatures that has occurred in recent years. The Strait of Gibraltar is the entrance door of the new neighbors.

"The study is focused on the fish fauna. We found that during the second half of the twentieth century into tropical and subtropical species in the western Mediterranean and among the causes would be a change in climatic conditions," said Enric Massutí, one of the authors of the research.
However, "these changes do not occur only effects of weather. They also influence the variations that occur in habitats. Each species must find suitable conditions of temperature, salinity, etc.".

They have also detected changes in the populations of some native fish. While some thermophilic species such as amberjack ( 'Seriola dumerili') are more abundant now, as the boreal fish goby ( 'Aphia minute') or sprat ( 'Sprattus sprattus') are scarce.

The study is part of a volume that takes stock of the situation throughout the Mediterranean and biologists who contributed Italian, Turkish, Israeli, Greek and French. The book is called 'Fish Invasions of the Mediterranean Sea: Change and Renewal (' invasions of fish in the Mediterranean Sea: change and renewal ') and its authors find a similar situation in all Mediterranean regions. The effect is more pronounced on the east coast, for there more species have come from the Red Sea through the Suez Canal.