The deep sea fishery targeting the black and intermediate scabbardfishes (Aphanopus spp.) off the Madeira archipelago represents one of the world long standing exploitations of meso- and bathypelagic fishes. The intensive fishing of the target species caused an overall decrease of more than (51%) in their yields.

The complete list of Canarian marine decapods (last update by González & Quiles 2003, popular book) currently comprises 374 species/subspecies, grouped in 198 genera and 82 families; whereas the Cape Verdean marine decapods (now fully listed for the first time) are represented by 343 species/subspecies with 201 genera and 80 families.

In the current scenario of defaunation and bioinvasion, increasing the knowledge about the composition in marine species and monitoring are an emergency need to control the biodiversity. Nearly 35 years have passed since Türkay (1982) published the decapod crustaceans of the Cape Verde islands,

Composition and bycatch of semi-floating shrimp-trap fisheries (SSTF) were compared among areas with different levels of anthropogenic alteration of marine ecosystems. The three areas selected were Madeira, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde. Mean species richness and diversity of the SSTF did not show significant differences among areas.

Harvesting of intertidal grazers such as topshells is known to affect negatively the exploited populations by altering population structure and decreasing abundance. Phorcus sauciatus has a wide geographic distribution in the North‐eastern Atlantic Ocean and is subject to increasing levels of harvesting pressure due to the expansion of human population on coastal areas.

The present work describes a taxonomic trait able to determine sex in pandalid shrimps of the genus Plesionika and an indicator of functional maturity in females. This structure is described as formed by two teeth with abundant setae present in all males of the nine Plesionika species examined.