International bottom trawl survey in the Mediterranean. Instruction manual. Version 9

The MEDITS project started in 1994 within the cooperation between several research Institutes from four Mediterranean Member States (France, Greece, Italy, Spain) of the European Union. Along the time, till to the advent of the European framework for the collection and management of fisheries data, new partners from Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Malta and Cyprus joined the MEDITS project. The target was to conduct a common bottom trawl survey in the Mediterranean in which all the participants use the same gear, the same sampling protocol and the same methodology.   A first manual with the major specifications was prepared at the start of the project. The manual was revised in 1995, following the 1994 survey and taking into account the methodological improvements acquired during the first survey. Along the years, several improvements were introduced. A new version of the manual was issued each time it was felt necessary to make improvements to the previous protocol. In any case, each time the MEDITS Co-ordination Committee ensured that amendments did not disrupt the consistency of the series. The third version of this manual was edited in 1999, while the fourth one served as a manual for the surveys carried out between 2000 and 2006. The fifth version, although issued in 2007, included improvements adopted by the MEDITS group since 2005, and was the protocol followed from 2005 until 2011 surveys.   In 2012 the revision 6 was issued, which included substantial modifications to the MEDITS manual, though not affecting the main characteristics of the protocol regarding the sampling scheme, methods and gear. This new version included changes in the list of target species and faunistic categories, which were both expanded. In addition, the protocol for otolith sampling and measurements of biological parameters was included, while adjusting the storage data formats accordingly.   The version number 7, in continuity with the previous ones, was amending and innovating some aspects, while incorporating more specific and standardised gear checks and proposing a common protocol for the voluntary collection of data on marine litters, in agreements with the requirements of the Marine Strategy Directive Framework (Directive 2008/56/EC).   The version 8 introduced more details on the checks of the MEDITS gear and on the aspects related to the taxonomic list and categories. To ease the MEDITS Handbook consultation, the present version 9 separates out the TM list from the MEDITS Handbook and makes the former available in an electronic format only at the web site: http://www.sibm.it/MEDITS%202011/principale%20project.htm.