GSA 23, located in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, extends on an area of 7343 km². The MEDITS survey has been carried out since 1994, primarily during the third quarter of the year, with an initial sampling intensity of about 16 hauls per year (1994-2001), further increasedto 20 hauls per year in 2002 (. The survey was not conducted in the following years: 2002, 2007, from 2009 to 2013, 2015 and 2017.