Tatton, B., LaFrance, E., Smith, D., Ward, E., Miliou, A. Confirmation of a Mass Mortality Event within a Pinna nobilis population between 2018 and 2019 in the eastern Aegean Sea, Greece. 42nd CIESM Congress 2019.

Background:

Pinna nobilis (L. 1758) is the largest endemic pteriomorphian bivalve in the Mediterranean, its endangered status has historically been linked to habitat loss, illegal fishing and anchor strikes (Basso et al., 2015).In July 2016 the first reports emerged from South-East Spain of Mass Mortality Events (MMEs) resulting in between 90% and 99% mortality (Vázquez-Luis et al., 2017). Current literature implicates Haplosporidium pinnae, as well as multifactorial pathologies, as the causative agents for several of the observed MMEs across the Mediterranean (Carella et al., 2019). After further reports of MMEs across the Mediterranean (Figure 1) the IUCN has called for increased monitoring to assess mortality rates, recruitment and to identify resistant populations (IUCN, 2019). This study aimed to monitor the health of two known subpopulations (Tatton et al., 2019), over the course of 13 months, found between 0.5 and 5 m depth off the Greek island of Lipsi, in the eastern Aegean Sea.