ORMEF_v1: Occurrence Records of Mediterranean Exotic Fishes (updated to 01/01/2026)

ORMEF is a database about Mediterranean Exotic Fishes including geo-referenced information and temporal dimension of the invasions for scientists, conservationists and policy makers, disseminating specialist’s knowledge and experience.

Default

IdentificationAbout this resource

Alternate Identifier

10.25607/dtd8cr

Alternate Identifier
https://ipt.medobis.eu/resource?r=ormefmediterraneanexoticfishes
Alternate Identifier

8ce8e762-1ebd-4b8c-9b4b-3810e6b19b68

Alternate Identifier

10.25607/7ftv2x

Publication Date
2026-04-27
Title

ORMEF_v1: Occurrence Records of Mediterranean Exotic Fishes (updated to 01/01/2026)

Abstract

ORMEF is a database about Mediterranean Exotic Fishes including geo-referenced information and temporal dimension of the invasions for scientists, conservationists and policy makers, disseminating specialist’s knowledge and experience.

Dataset Language

ENGLISH

 
Dataset Creator
Dataset Creator
Dataset Creator
Dataset Contact
Dataset Contact
Dataset Contact
Keywords (GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type_2015-07-10.xml)

  • Mediterranean

  • Exotic species

  • Non-indigenous species

  • fish

  • Lessepsian

  • Geo-referenced occurrence

Geographic Coverage

Geographic Description

The Mediterranean sea

Bounding Box

West Bounding Coordinate

-5.428

East Bounding Coordinate

36.232

North Bounding Coordinate

45.828

South Bounding Coordinate

30.295

Temporal Coverage

Range of Dates

Begin Date

1896-01-01

End Date

2026-01-01

Taxonomic Coverage

Taxonomic Classification

Taxonomic Rank Name

Class

Taxonomic Rank Value

Actinopterygii

Common Name

Actinopterygians

resourceLicensesLicense Information

Intellectual Rights

This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License

.

Resource License

License Name

Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International

URL
https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-4.0.html
Identifier

CC-BY-NC-4.0

 

Distribution

Online

URL
https://www.ormef.eu

Distribution

Online

URL
https://ipt.medobis.eu/archive.do?r=ormefmediterraneanexoticfishes
 

Additional Metadata

Metadata

GBIF Metadata Block

Date Stamp

2026-05-08T00:00:02Z

Citation

Azzurro E, D'Amen M, Biancone N (2026). ORMEF_v1: Occurrence Records of Mediterranean Exotic Fishes (updated to 01/01/2026). Version 1.19. Hellenic Center for Marine Research. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.25607/dtd8cr accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-05-08.

Logo URL
https://www.ormef.eu/imgs/ormef_logo.png
 

Project

• Project

Title

Updating Mediterranean exotic fish occurrences for the European Digital Twin of the Ocean

Personnel

Individual Name

Given Name

Ernesto

Surname

Azzurro

User ID

0000-0002-9805-3164

Role

OWNER

Personnel

Individual Name

Given Name

Manuela

Surname

D'Amen

User ID

0000-0001-5910-4267

Role

PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Personnel

Individual Name

Given Name

Noemi

Surname

Biancone

User ID

0000-0003-4673-028X

Role

PROGRAMMER

Abstract

The ORMEF (Occurrence Records of Mediterranean Exotic Fish) database serves as an authoritative reference for Mediterranean bio‑invasion research, providing a living, continuously updated archive that supports scientists, managers, and policymakers. This updated version of ORMEF includes geo‑referenced records spanning the entire Mediterranean region from 1896 to January 1, 2026. The database currently contains 12841 occurrence records distributed across the territorial waters of 20 Mediterranean countries, sourced from 889 scientific publications. Each record extracted from the scientific literature was associated with a set of standardized information, including species name, year and month of observation, minimum and maximum depth, locality, and the country where the species was recorded. The corresponding bibliographic reference, representing the source of each geo‑referenced record, is also included in the database. The database will be periodically updated by checking the main journals devoted to the publication of exotic fish records. All data can be interactively explored through the new ORMEF web platform (www.ormef.eu). The user‑friendly interface allows precise visualization of geo‑referenced occurrences, with intuitive filtering and querying tools. The platform also features animated temporal reconstructions and customizable time-interval filters, enabling dynamic exploration of invasion patterns over time and space.

Funding

Grant is issued in the framework of the “DTO-BioFlow project - HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01 – 101112823"

Study Area Description

Descriptor

Mediterranean sea

 
 

Methods

• Method

Method Step

Description

Not applicable

Sampling

Study Extent

Mediterranean sea

Sampling Description

Georeferenced occurrence records were gathered through an extensive literature search mainly through Google Scholar, ISI Web of Science, and Scopus, by multiple search criteria and using the scientific names of the species and a combination of terms such as exotic, non-indigenous, alien in conjunction with the Mediterranean Sea and names of Mediterranean countries, in the title, abstract, and keywords. All records were manually verified to identify potential outliers and in-land data points. These records were checked against the information provided by the original source and manually moved to the localities indicated in the source, only when wrongly reported. Duplicate records were removed. The dataset structure was based on Darwin Core Standard (DwC, https://dwc.tdwg.org/), and taxonomic information was extracted from the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS; www.marinespecies.org).