A new scientific publication by the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation, in collaboration with researchers from Cardiff University (Wales), the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia), examines invasive species in the Aegean Sea.

The study is based on research conducted in the eastern Aegean and investigates competition for food resources between native herbivorous fish species—such as the salema (Sarpa salpa) and the parrotfish (Sparisoma cretense)—and two invasive rabbitfish species known as “siganus” (Siganus spp.).

These rabbitfish entered the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal in the 1930s and were first recorded in the Aegean in the late 1950s. Today, they are among the most widespread invasive species in Greek marine ecosystems.

Species such as rabbitfish, which spread across the Mediterranean decades before climate change became a widely discussed issue, highlight how human interventions—such as the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and its later expansion in 2015, carried out without adequate preventive or management measures—have contributed to the establishment of non-native species as a new ecological reality. Overfishing also plays a crucial role by causing marine ecosystem degradation, creating ecological “voids” that facilitate the establishment and spread of invasive species.

According to the findings of the study, invasive herbivorous fish can restructure native fish communities and significantly alter grazing dynamics in coastal ecosystems of the Aegean Sea.

Read the full scientific publication here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403807553_Impacts_of_Invasive_Rabbitfish_Species_on_Native_Herbivore_Communities_in_Eastern_Aegean_Coastal_Ecosystems?fbclid=IwY2xjawSc0WpleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEegiif95KAvnr7LxdsDDJsNgYnpzp2jnur_Fi4-fVdSWzeMDsoQUYzt4YnDYQ_aem_mRutT3Lb-WL-l0NEzSaYOw