Fieldwork for the year 2025 under the Pan-Mediterranean Pinna Larval Collectors Network Project, in which academic staff from the Faculty of Maritime Studies at Girne University have been actively involved since 2021, was successfully completed on 13 November 2025.

Within the scope of the field activities, larval collector bags were deployed on 3 August 2025 at previously studied coordinates (33°13’14″E / 35°21’46″N) and remained submerged until 13 November 2025, when they were carefully retrieved. Preliminary assessments revealed the identification of 18 individuals of Pinna nobilis, representing the highest number of detections recorded to date in the study area.

The deployment and retrieval of collectors were conducted simultaneously with partner institutions across the Mediterranean, ensuring temporal consistency and enabling reliable comparative analyses of data obtained from different regions. The collected data are expected to contribute to both direct and indirect scientific evaluations aimed at enhancing knowledge of the distribution, population dynamics, and conservation status of selected marine species within the Mediterranean ecosystem.

The project is led by Prof. Dr. Mehmet Fatih Hüseyinoğlu, with Dr. Gökhan Tarı serving as the project coordinator. The research team also includes associate degree, undergraduate, and graduate students, whose participation supports capacity building and the integration of early-career researchers into applied scientific research.

The findings obtained through this project will be shared with relevant national institutions, organizations, and local non-governmental organizations, with the objective of raising regional awareness of marine biodiversity conservation and contributing to science-based management and policy-making processes.