Contribution to a better knowledge of biology, distribution and diversity of demersal species along the Lebanese coast, eastern Mediterranean : a focus on Lessepsian fish species Stefano Lelli To cite this version: Stefano Lelli. Contribution to a better knowledge of biology, distribution and diversity of demersal species along the Lebanese coast, eastern Mediterranean : a focus on Lessepsian fish species. Ocean, Atmosphere. Université de Perpignan, 2017. English. NNT : 2017PERP0051. tel-02516572 HAL Id: tel-02516572 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02516572 Submitted on 24 Mar 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Délivré par UNIVERSITE DE PERPIGNAN VIA DOMITIA Préparée au sein de l’école doctorale Energie et Environnement Et de l’unité de recherche CEntre de Formation et de Recherche sur les Environnements Méditerranéens (CEFREM) UMR 5110 CNRS UPVD Spécialité : Océanologie Présentée par Stefano LELLI Contribution to a better knowledge of biology, distribution and diversity of demersal species along the Lebanese coast, eastern Mediterranean: a focus on Lessepsian fish species. Soutenue le 22 Décembre 2017 devant le jury composé de Rachid AMARA, Professeur, HDR, Universités du Rapporteur Littoral Côte d’Opale Adib SAAD, Professeur, Université de Tishreen, Rapporteur Syrie Matteo MURENU, Maître de conférences, Examinateur Université de Cagliari, Italie Philippe LENFANT, Professeur, HDR, UPVD Examinateur Gaby KHALAF, Professeur, CNRS Libanais Directeur Marion VERDOIT-JARRAYA, Maître de Co-directrice conférences, UPVD 1 Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep gratitude to the people who were part of this extensive endeavour and to all the Institutions that made it possible. To the CIHEAM-Agronomic Institute of Bari that always placed absolute trust in me and granted me excellent support. To the staff of the CIHEAM- Pesca Libano project that dedicated its efforts towards the successful achievements of our objectives. For the coordination and support and in specific for upholding the smooth implementation of field activities, I wish to thank the National Council for Scientific Research, Lebanon (CNRS) and in particular the Secretary General Mouïn Hamzé, all the staff of the CANA project and the crew of the R/V CANA-CNRS. My gratitude also goes to the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife of Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lebanon (DFW-MoA) for indicating strategic areas of interventions and simplifying formal procedures for field work. Furthermore, I never forget that all this could not have been possible without the financial support and the confidence granted by the Italian Cooperation. For its higher support in the constant effort to share durable strategies for the fisheries sector in Lebanon, I express my gratitude and appreciation to the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM). Also, I am grateful to the FAO regional project EastMed and to the Institute for Coastal Marine Environment of the CNR (IAMC-CNR) for their vital technical support and to the ENVIMED Mistral CNRS France for its financial support for the LESSEPS project. All these institutions are made up of human beings that encouraged, suggested, brainstormed, discussed or simply lent me a hand before, during and after the implementation of the field activities. I wish to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Biagio Di Terlizzi, Samir Majdalani and Francesco Colloca for their continuous guidance, their help and the friendship they honor me with. My gratitude also goes to Myriam Lteif, Sharif Jemaa and all the colleagues of the NCMS of Batroun and to Dahej el Mokdad, Imad Lahoud and the rangers of the MoA assigned to the DFW-MoA. This study could not have been completed without the support of the Lebanese fishermen, their bravery and tough job in the sea. In particular, I wish to acknowledge the fishermen Toufic Assal from Batroun and Nicholas Rahmé from Tyre for their vital technical advice. Lastly, I wish to acknowledge the privilege to have worked with extremely knowledgeable supervisors. I offer them my deep gratitude, to my supervisor Professor Gaby Khalaf and my co- supervisor Dr. Marion Verdoit-Jarraya. I would like to offer my deepest gratitude to the members of the jury who all gave me the honor and pleasure of being present during my thesis defense and their remarks were very beneficial to me. I am indebted to Université de Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD), especially the director of the Centre de Formation et de Recherche sur les Environnements Méditerranéens (CEFREM), Wolfgang Ludwig for welcoming me during my thesis. 2 3 Table of contents Table of contents .............................................................................................................. 4 Chapter 1 General Introduction ...................................................................................... 12 Overview ................................................................................................................................ 12 The Mediterranean Sea: Biodiversity, threats and fisheries ...................................................... 13 Geographical overview ..................................................................................................... 13 Biodiversity........................................................................................................................ 13 Threats .............................................................................................................................. 14 Fisheries ............................................................................................................................ 14 Demersal species: Status, fisheries and threats ........................................................................ 16 Worldwide overview ......................................................................................................... 16 Demersal species life history traits ................................................................................... 18 Mediterranean Demersal species ..................................................................................... 19 Mediterranean Demersal species fisheries and threats ................................................... 20 Various management tools for coastal ecosystems ......................................................... 20 Eastern Mediterranean Demersal species ........................................................................ 21 Lessepsian species and invasions............................................................................................. 23 Definition of non-indigenous species (NIS) ....................................................................... 23 Brief history of the ‘Erythrean’ invasion ........................................................................... 23 Description of the main arrivals of NIS in eastern Mediterranean .................................. 25 Ecological and economic impacts of invasions in general. ............................................... 28 Objectives of the study ........................................................................................................... 30 Chapter 2 Materials and Methods .................................................................................. 34 Characteristics of the study area ............................................................................................. 34 Data collection ....................................................................................................................... 36 Background ....................................................................................................................... 36 Sampling design ................................................................................................................ 36 Sampling gears .................................................................................................................. 39 Protocols for sampling activities ....................................................................................... 41 Biological indices and sexual maturity ..................................................................................... 43 Weight-length relationship ............................................................................................... 43 Condition factor ................................................................................................................ 43 Sexual maturity ................................................................................................................. 43 4 Stomach contents analysis ...................................................................................................... 47 Diet composition ............................................................................................................... 47 Feeding strategy ................................................................................................................ 48 Ageing fish and growth curves ...............................................................................................