Wood - Sea fishes of the Mediterranean including marine invertebrates

Bloomsbury Natural History

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This electronic edition published in 2015 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First by New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd in 2002

This edition published by Bloomsbury in 2015

Lawson Wood, 2012

Line drawings Mick Loates, 2002

Cartography Carte Blanche, Paignton, 2002

Lawson Wood has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

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ISBN: PB: 978-1-4729-2178-9

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the many people and organizations who made this project possible and in particular: Lesley Orson; Jo Hemmings; Helmut Debelius; Dr. Elizabeth Wood; Professor Alexandre Meinesz and the University of Nice; Mark Busuttil and St. Andrews Divers Cove, Gozo; George Vella and Calypso Diving Centre, Gozo; Ian Pitchfork and Aquaventure, Malta; Mike & Agnes Upton at Maltaqua, Malta; Mike Mandale, Ramon Sileceo and Xaloc Dive Centre, Estartit, Spain; Mark & Diana Davies, Valbonne, France; Pantxoa and Madame Gabi at Aqua Pro Dive International, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France; Igor Indjein from Golf Juan, France; Michle Tourrette of Telemaque Plon-gee, Roquebrune, France; Fred Short and Rock Marine, Gibraltar; Photos Socratous and Cydive, Cyprus; Guido Schwengersbauer and Posejdon Croatia Diving Club, Croatia; Eurodivers, Zakynthos, Greece; Loisirs de Tabarka Dive Centre, Tunisia; Alf Chappell and the European Diving Centre, Turkey; Mansour and the Extreme Team Diving Club in the Lebanon; Hugh and Sardinia Scuba Tours, Sardinia; Marine Conservation Society; The Shark Group; Sea & Sea Ltd; Alan James Photography; Ocean Optics; Eastern Photovisual; Harlequin Worldwide Travel; Snooba Travel; British Airways; Air Malta; Go; Ryanair and Easyjet.

CONTENTS

THE MEDITERRANEAN

Known as the Cradle of Civilization, the Mediterranean Sea is now set in a massive flooded depression in the earths crust formed over millennia. This vast expanse of water is almost completely landlocked, stretching from the Straits of Gibraltar in the west to the coasts of Turkey, Syria and Israel in the East. The Mediterranean both links and divides three continents, Europe, Africa and Asia. The varied depths of this basin also support varying communities of marine life and although all of the species found in the Mediterranean contribute to the whole, we shall only concern ourselves with what we can see, practically and with the least effort, whether it be from swimming, snorkelling, scuba diving, or even fishing and sailing.

With water temperatures that never drop below 10C, the Mediterranean has remained fairly isolated over the years and has evolved a distinct ecosystem only troubled by mans intrusion. The region is complex and diverse in its geography, history and climate, with much of what we know and see only coming from the northern shores and around many of the islands.

Known for its very singular climate, the present shores of the Mediterranean were roughly formed five million years ago; however, it took early form over twenty million years ago when the western shores were still closed and the eastern end was still linked to the vast primeval Tethys Sea. As the years passed, Africa slipped anticlockwise, Arabia split from Africa forming the Red Sea and the eastern stretches of the Mediterranean also became landlocked. Whilst this continental movement was progressing, the land areas were gradually crumpled up forming a ring of mountains which now comprise the Sierra Nevada, the Alps, the Atlas Mountains, the Dinaric Alps, the Rhodope Mountains, the Akhdar Heights and the Taurus Mountains. Over the subsequent two or three million years, the now-landlocked Mediterranean filled and evaporated several times as the earths crust shifted, often leaving gigantic salt marshes and mud pools where dinosaurs once roamed.

As far as can be agreed between scientists, about five million years ago, there was a massive cataclysmic earthquake which opened up the Gibraltar sill, and the Atlantic Ocean poured into the basin taking almost a century to fill. Today, this connection to the Atlantic Ocean is still very evident and water pours into the Mediterranean at approximately 4km/h (2.5mph) in a layer from 75 to 300m (2501,000ft) deep. This sea water gradually evaporates and the heavier, more salty water sinks and eventually flows back out through the Straits of Gibraltar, taking around eighty years to replenish the water column.

This has had several knock-on effects, one of which is the reduced amount of plankton to be found in the Mediterranean and what plankton there is, quite often flows back out into the Atlantic in the deeper ocean currents. This ultimately produces less marine life, but also clear water in general. As always, there are notable exceptions and wherever there is a large river run-off there will be periodic algal blooms which reduce visibility. Rough seas in shallow areas also contribute to poor visibility, but in general one should expect underwater visibility of about 30 to 50m (100165ft).