The main goal of the research project is the assessment of:

1. The relationships between the spatio/temporal fluctuations of the small pelagic fish population characteristics and the environmental conditions in the Mediterranean Sea.
2. Determinisms of these relationships through analyses of the structures and dynamics of the distribution of small pelagic fish and the main oceanographic descriptors (hydrodynamics and water masses characteristics).

The combined methodologies and technologies involved in the research attempt to provide a new approach to the natural fluctuations of the small pelagics not yet explained as effects of the fishing effort or internal population fluctuations.