######################################################################## OMREF: Occurrence Records of Mediterranean Exotic Fishes database. ######################################################################## Title of the dataset: "OMREF: Occurrence Records of Mediterranean Exotic Fishes database." Authors: Ernesto Azzurro (CNR-IRBIM; SZN), Sonia Smeraldo (CNR-IRBIM; SZN), Manuela D'Amen (CNR-IRBIM; SZN) Abstract: The ORMEF database is a comprehensive, and robust compilation of exotic fish observations recorded in the entire Mediterranean Region from 1896 to 2020. ORMEF is composed by 4015 geo-referenced occurrences distributed in the territorial waters of 20 Mediterranean Countries and extracted from 670 scientific published papers. The resultant database is a collection of 188 fish taxa whose 106 species entered through the Suez Canal; 256 species introduced by human activities (shipping, mariculture, aquarium release); 576 Atlantic species. The dataset has undergone a severe technical and scientific review for what concerns taxa and geographical accuracy and it consists of a CSV file of the records (observations), including information on all the bibliography from which dataset has been built. Contact persons: ernesto.azzurro@cnr.it Contact organization: CNR-IRBIM (Italy), info@irbim.cnr.it Data collection collaborators: Francesc Maynou and Domingo Lloris (ICM-CSIS, Barcelona, Spain), Emanuela Fanelli (UNIVPM, Ancona, Italy) Dataset format: Comma Separated Value (unique file) License: CC-BY 4.0 Temporal range of observations : 1896-2020 Date of dataset creation: Date of dataset completion: 2021-10-19 Project/Program: The Interreg Med projects (Project MPA-Adapt - Grant number 1197 | 1MED15_3.2_M2_337 and Project MPA-ENGAGE - grant number: 5216 | 5MED18_3.2_M23_007) partially supported this work. Processing methodology: Occurrence records were gathered through an extensive literature search combining by multiple search criteria; each recordwas associated with the name of the species, year of detection, presumed introduction path, and the country where the species was observed; each georeferenced observation included in ORMEF undergone a severe quality control and checked for possible geographical and taxonomic biases. Parameters: * Record_ID: a progressive code univocally identifying each record * Species: scientific name of the species verified with Fisher et al., 2019 * AphiaID: unique identifier of the species provided by the World Register of Marine Species * Family: family taxonomic rank verified with Fisher et al., 2019 * Category: classified basing on entering means in Exotic CAN = Species entered through the Suez Canal; Exotic HM = Species introduced by other human agency; NRE Atlantic species supposed to have naturally entered the Mediterranean after natural range expansion through the strait of Gibraltar * Year: the four-digit year of each sighting * Country: country in which the species was observed * Coordinates_precision: precision of registered coordinates as Pre = Precise if radius of uncertainty is lesser equal 1 km; App = Approximate if radius of uncertainty is greater than 1km and lesser equal 10 km; Con = Conventional if radius of uncertainty is greater than 10 km * Decimal_Lat: geographical latitude [decimal degrees] * Decimal_Long: geographical longitude [decimal degrees] * Source: the source from where the record was extracted * DOI: Digital Object Identifier of the source, where present Number of observations: 4015 Bounding box: N,S,E,W = 46.97802, 28.25043, 39.81122, -9.74039 [decimal deg] Sea Area common name: Mediterranean Sea CRS: WGS84