The project of the eastern Mediterranean fish fauna emphasized monitoring, contemporary DNA molecular analysis, as well as classical taxonomy. We invited internationally renowned ichthyologists to join in this study and published scientific papers and updated checklist and books.

The Checklist of Mediterranean fish of Israel, published in 2021, included 469 species which was an addition of 62 species from the previous checklist of 2005. The checklist included 38 species of Red Sea origin that reached the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal (Lessepsian migrants). During our project, three species were first described to science. All three species Saurida lessepsianus Russell, Golani and Tikochivski, 2015, Diplodus levantinus Fricke, Golani and Appelbaum-Golani, 2019 and Sillago suzensis Golani, Fricke and Tikochinski, 2013 were previously considered part of a wide-range distribution species but were separated by classical morphology and by molecular techniques.

Golani, D. and D. Darom, 1997. Handbook of the fishes of Israel. Keter Publications House, Jerusalem, 269 pp. (in Hebrew).

Golani, D., B. Öztürk and N. Başusta, 2006. Fishes of the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkish Marine Research Foundation, Publication no. 24, Istanbul, Turkey. 259 pp. 

Golani. D. 2021. An updated Checklist of the Mediterranean fishes of Israel, with illustrations of recently recorded species and delineation of Lessepsian migrants. Zootaxa 4956 Magmolia Press, Auckland, New Zealand. 108 pp.