The “Pipeta programme” (named after the Italian commercial trawler used; 300 HP; LOA = 26 m) was started in 1982 by the Laboratory of Marine Biology and Fisheries (LMBF, Italy) and the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (IOF, Croatia). The expedition was a fishery-independent trawl-survey of the demersal communities using a bottom otter-trawl net (wing mesh-size: 55 mm; cod-end mesh-size: 22 mm; foot-rope length: 41 m; head-rope length: 32 m). The survey was successively called GRUND programme and ended in 2007.