Changes to the coastal fish fauna of the Maltese islands

Abstract

The Mediterranean Sea is undergoing changes in species diversity and biogeography at a rate that is unprecedented in recent times because of their mobility and conspicuousness, and their familiarity with sea-users, fish are one of the groups for which such changes have been best documented. On a basin-wide scale, it has been observed that native and non-indigenous thermophilic species have expanded their range while that of less thermophilic species has contracted; moreover, new thermophilic species are entering the Mediterranean.