The third thematic issue of Marine Biology Research is devoted to recent investigations on the taxonomy, biology, and ecology of sharks and rays by European scientists. Although popular, the chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras) have been little studied, but in recent decades, scientists have shown a growing interest in this group of fishes.

The present thematic issue includes four original articles resulting from communications presented at the 2007 EEA meeting in Brest, four original articles submitted independently during the same period, and two book reviews. The topics of the research articles deal with species’ regional and depth distributions, new records for larger areas, population ecology as well as shark behaviour and reproductive biology.

Species concerned are mainly from the North-Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea (e.g. the Atlantic sawtail catshark Galeus atlanticus (Vaillant, 1888), the lantern shark Etmopterus spinax (Linnaeus, 1758), the small-spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula Linnaeus, (1758) and the Norwegian skate Dipturus nidarosiensis (Storm, 1881)), but also from the Bahamas (the lemon shark Negaprion brevirostris (Poey, 1868)), South Africa (the great white shark Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus, 1758)) and the Maldives Islands (the manta rays Manta alfredi (Krefft, 1868) and M. birostris (Walbaum, 1792))

These papers show that nowadays a growing number of scientists are interested in chondrichthyan fishes and their taxonomy, biology, ecology, ethology, and conservation, both in Europe and worldwide. As a result, this thematic issue contributes to increasing our knowledge on these fascinating fishes. They deserve it!