News

June 2021

The Greek translation of the classic Ichthyology textbook (Helfman et al.) is now available. Four members of the School of Biology (Antonopoulou, Bobori, Stergiou, Tsikliras) translated seven chapters.

May 2021

Another project, ILIAD, submitted to H2020 Green Deal calls has been approved for funding. AUTH (A. Tsikliras) is among the 55 participants.

April 2021

A new AUTH coordinated project (D. Bobori, A. Triantafyllidis) submitted to EPAL has been approved for funding.

March 2021

Former lab member Donna Dimarchopoulou (now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Rhode Island, USA) co-edits (with Daniel Pauly) a special issue in Environmental Biology of Fishes.

February 2021

Emeritus Professor and former head of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (1990-2002) Panos S Economidis died at the age of 87. A special issue of the magazine Fishing News is dedicated to his memory.

January 2021

A new AUTH coordinated project (A. Tsikliras) submitted to H2020 has been approved for funding. EcoScope will officially begin in September 2021.

December 2020

The 2020 Prize is awarded to the International Commission against the Death Penalty and The Network of Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change (MedECC) of the Union for the Mediterranean. More details here.

November 2020

CMSY++, an improved version of the successful method for assessing data-poor fisheries has been developed along with an R-Shiny web app for educational purposes.

October 2020

The first ever assessment of 74 un-assessed demersal fish and invertebrate stocks in the Aegean Sea is published in collaboration with Fisheries Research Institute of Kavala. More details here.

September 2020

A four-year journey to the National Marine Park of Alonissos and Northern Sporades has ended with the publication of the report of the second stage of the project. We would like to thank Thalassa Foundation for funding this project and Mom for supporting our work in Alonissos. More than twenty members of the lab were involved in various stages of the project that produced several articles published in journals and conference proceedings.

August 2020

The First Mediterranean Assessment Report (MAR1) prepared by the independent network of Mediterranean Experts on Climate and environmental Change (MedECC) is published. Members of the Laboratory of Ichthyology participated as lead and contributing authors (D Dimarchopoulou, A Pardalou, A Tsikliras).

The full report is available here.

July 2020

A new generation of scientists was trained on marine megafauna-fisheries interactions in Athens. A new collaboration of the lab with WWF Greece and HCMR.

June 2020

Kick-off meeting for the 4ALIEN project in collaboration of the lab with HCMR (co-ordinator) and WWF Greece. The project will deal with the biology, expansion and fisheries of four alien species, including the delicious lionfish.

May 2020

COVID-19 restrictions benefit marine fisheries
Some of the world’s largest fishing nations are now experiencing considerable reductions in fishing activity. In Europe many countries are seeing sustained reductions in weekly fishing activity of 50% or more relative to recent years. Declines in fishing activity are resulting from low demand, falling prices, and seafood market closures. More info.

April 2020

Daniel Pauly, the most highly cited fisheries scientist of all times, reaches 100,000 citations!

March 2020

Donna Dimarchopoulou defended her PhD thesis supervised by Athanassios Tsikliras and continues as a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Fisheries, Animal & Veterinary Science of the University of Rhode Island, USA.

Foivos Mouchlianitis defended his PhD thesis supervised by Kostas Ganias.

February 2020

Georgia Stamou defended her PhD thesis supervised by Evangelia Michaloudi and continues as a post-doctoral researcher at the School of Biology.

Maria Christou defended her PhD thesis supervised by Kostas Stergiou and continues as a research assistant at the Energy, Environment and Water Research Center of The Cyprus Institute.

January 2020

Sidney Holt (1926-2019), co-author of the Bible of Fisheries Science died on 22 December 2019. Daniel Pauly wrote Sidney’s obituary in Science.

December 2019

A seminar course an a4a (Assessment for All) was organized at the Fisheries Institute of Kavala by the Laboratory of Ichthyology (Athanassios Tsikliras, Androniki Pardalou) and another one on scientific writing and reporting (Athanassios Tsikliras).

November 2019

The Advanced Course on Fisheries Biology in R (Stock assessment) was held in Thessaloniki at the School of Biology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (11-15 November 2019). Fifteen scientists from eight Mediterranean and Black Sea countries, but also from Columbia, attended the course. The purpose of the course was to introduce stock assessment scientists from around the Mediterranean and Black Sea to a string of new tools (BCrumb, LBB, CMSY, AMSY, JABBA) for application in data-poor situations. Participants were then encouraged to apply these new tools to their respective stocks and present their results to the group, for general discussion. We were proud to have Rainer Froese and Henning Winker, who developed these tools, as instructors who guided the participants and explained little details that make the difference.

October 2019

The seminar course Fisheries Biology in R (I: Introductory Course) was organized (Athanassios Tsikliras, Androniki Pardalou, Donna Dimarchopoulou) at the School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece with the participation of ten scientists from 5 countries.

The 17th Conference of Ichthyology was held in Crete and members of the School of Biology were among the Organizing Committee.

September 2019

The Department of Environmental Engineering of Democritus University of Thrace (Professor Georgios Sylaios) and the School of Biology of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Athanassios Tsikliras, Donna Dimarchopoulou, Androniki Pardalou) co-organized the 2nd ODYSSEA Summer School entitled “Oceanography and Fisheries in the Mediterranean” in Alonnisos Island with the support of Thalassa Foundation. Twenty scientists from five countries attended.

The FishBase Annual Symposium and Consortium Meeting was held at the University of Western Australia (Perth, Australia).

August 2019

Athanassios Tsikliras was interviewed by G Lialios, journalist of the newspaper KATHIMERINI on the fisheries of Alonissos Marine Park and the status of fish stocks in the area.

July 2019

C Ntislidou defended her PhD thesis supervised by D Bobori.

July 2019

C Ntislidou defended her PhD thesis supervised by D Bobori.

June 2019

The 14th International Congress on the Zoogeography and Ecology of Greece and Adjacent Regions (ICZEGAR) was organized in Thessaloniki (27-30 June 2019) by the School of Biology and the Hellenic Zoological Society. Members of the Laboratory of Ichthyology were involved in the organization (A Tsikliras, D Dimarchopoulou, A Pardalou, I Keramidas, M Makri) or as moderators (E Michaloudi).

A Tsikliras was invited speaker at the celebration of the 20 years of Sea Around Us in Vancouver, Canada.

May 2019

Members of the Zooplankton Group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology organized a lab session in DNA Day annual activity of the School of Biology. Photos are available here.

April 2019

A Pardalou is attending the 5th International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas at The Westin Resort, Costa Navarino, Messinia, Greece.

March 2019

AC Tsikliras participated in the 1st MedECC Assessment Report (MAR1) Lead Author Meeting in Milan. Members of the Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (AC Tsikliras, D Dimarchopoulou, A Pardalou) will author the drivers of marine resources chapter of the report Towards an improved scientific assessment of climate and environmental change and their consequences in the Mediterranean Basin.

February 2019

The final meeting of H2020 project DISCARDLESS was held in Copenhagen. The Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (AC Tsikliras) was involved in modeling the effects of landing obligation on ecosystem (Thermaikos Gulf) and fleet economics.

The second stakeholders meeting of the European project PROTOMEDEA was held in Athens. Members (D Dimarchopoulou, A Pardalou, I Keramidas, AC Tsikliras) of the Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology were involved in various work packages of the project and lead the ecosystem modeling WP.

January 2019

Members of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (AC Tsikliras) and of the School of Biology (A Triantafyllidis) participate in the Organizing and Scientific Committees of the 17th Ichthyological Conference that will be held in Iraklio, Crete in October/November 2019.

December 2018

Members of the Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (D Dimarchopoulou, A Pardalou, AC Tsikliras) presented their work in the Fish Forum conference in Rome. Dimarchopoulou received a full scholarship for attending the conference. The Greek community of the Fish Forum with member from HCMR, DG Mare, DG Encironment and AUTh (A Cheilari, K Tsagarakis, V Kostopoulou, D Dimarchopoulou, AC Tsikliras, A Pardalou, A Stamoulis).

November 2018

The 1st Introductory Fisheries Biology Course using R (FishBioR) was organized by the Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (AC Tsikliras, A Pardalou, D Dimarchopoulou). The course was held at the Fisheries Research Institute of Kavala and was attended by 21 scientists (26-30 November).

A joint stakeholders meeting of the project FISHFISH (D Dimarchopoulou, A Pardalou, AC Tsikliras) and WATERQUAL (D Bobori) was held in Alonissos. Members of the Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology presented the results of the FISHFISH project to fishers and other stakeholders in Alonissos and had the opportunity to go sampling at ports (A Pardalou, D Dimarchopoulou). The project will continue in 2019.

October 2018

The 14th ICZEGAR conference, jointly organized by the School of Biology and the Hellenic Zoological Society, will be held in Thessaloniki in June 2019.

September 2018

Members of the Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (AC Tsikliras, D Dimarchopoulou) participated as instructors at the 1st ODYSSEA Summer School “Operational Oceanography in the era of Blue Growth” (3-12 September 2018). The workshop is part of the Horizon 2020 project Odyssea.

August 2018

Members of the Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (D Dimarchopoulou, A Pardalou, AC Tsikliras) surveying using the newly acquired underwater drone (named Ray) in Alonnisos Marine Park.

July 2018

A workshop on Marine Ecosystem Modelling is organized at the School of Biology by the Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (AC Tsikliras,D Dimarchopoulou, A Pardalou). The workshop is part of the working packages lead by AUTh within the Horizon 2020 project Odyssea.

June 2018

A Pardalou was interviewed by K. Christofilidou, environmental journalist of ECONEWS (a television show of SKAI TV) on the marine mammal distribution in the Greek Seas and the aerial monitoring in which the Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (A Pardalou) is involved.

Daniel Pauly gave an inspirational speech on oxygen limitation entitled “Fish must breathe: outline of the Gill-Oxygen Limitation Theory – GOLT” during the 12th Symposium of Oceanography and Fisheries organized by HCMR in Corfu and AC Tsikliras had the honor to introduce him to the audience.

D Dimarchopoulou was awarded the best oral presentation prize (“Positive effects of long-term fishing restrictions on three commercial demersal fishes of Thermaikos Gulf (Aegean Sea, Greece)”) in the 12th Symposium of Oceanography and Fisheries organized by HCMR in Corfu.

May 2018

AC Tsikliras and D Dimarchopoulou were interviewed by E Poimenidou and C Arvanitidis, journalists of KATHIMERINA KAI APLA (a television show of ET3 TV) on the fisheries restrictions applied in Thermaikos Gulf and the status of fish stocks in the area. The show is available here (24-5-2018 52:10min).

AC Tsikliras and D Dimarchopoulou were interviewed by A Bousdoukou, journalist of TORA (atelevision show of SKAI TV)on the fisheries restrictions applied in Thermaikos Gulf and the status of fish stocks in the area.

AC Tsikliras was interviewed by K. Christofilidou, environmental journalist of ECONEWS (a television show of SKAI TV)on the status and exploitation of marine fisheries in Greece.

April 2018

Members of the Zooplankton Group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology organized a lab session in DNA Day annual activity of the School of Biology. Photos are available here.

February 2018

A short film on discarding and fisheries management was created for disseminating the results of the Horizon 2020 project DiscardLess. The Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (AC Tsikliras) was involved in modeling the effects of landing obligation on ecosystem (Thermaikos Gulf) and economics. Watch the film here.

January 2018

Members of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (AC Tsikliras and KI Stergiou, also Director of the Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research) were invited by the Environment Committee of the Greek Parliament to present their work and views on the status of marine fish and invertebrate stocks and their management. The entire session was broadcasted by the TV channel of the Parliament (Vouli TV) and is available here (Tsikliras from 26:40 for 7-8 minutes and Stergiou from 35:00).

June 2017

Members of the Laboratory of Ichthyology participated in the educational event “University for children: the secrets of the sea… and other explorations“ organized by the Municipality of Kavala and the Public Benefit Organisation of the City of Kavala (DIMOFELIA).

February 2017

The results of the most extensive assessment of European stocks were presented in the European Parliament by Rainer Froese, Principal investigator of the OCMSY project. Members of the Marine Fisheries and Fish Biology group of the Laboratory of Ichthyology (AC Tsikliras and D Dimarchopoulou) were responsible for the assessment of Mediterranean fish and invertebrate stocks. The entire session is available here.

January 2017

Universities (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), non-governmantal organizations (WWF) and famous chefs (Ilias Mamalakis) join forces against overfishing.

October 2016

The Laboratory of Ichthyology co-organized the 16th (Kavala) Hellenic Conference of Ichthyology.

October 2013

The Laboratory of Ichthyology co-organized the 15th (Thessaloniki) Hellenic Conference of Ichthyology.