A group of marine biologists confirmed of the presence in the waters of Cebu City a species of mollusk that is listed as critically endangered. 

The noble pen shell (Pinna nobilis), a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Pinnidae, is in the Red List of critically endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

The noble pen shell is believed to be endemic or native to the Mediterranean Sea. 

The seashell was discovered in an exploratory dive on August 22, 2024 and presented to the Cebu City Bantay Dagat Commission on October 11, 2024. 

According to a post of the Cebu City Reef Rehabilitation Initiative, the "Cebu City Bantay Dagat Commission, an attached agency to the Office of the City Mayor, then authorized a wider biodiversity assessment of the population density of mussels in the municipal [stet] waters of Cebu City, with divers finding another sample of the critically endangered species while conducting underwater procedure known as Point-Intercept-Transect."

“It is not yet known how a species endemic to the Mediterranean Sea found its way to the Indo-Pacific region, particularly in the municipal waters of Cebu City,” Cebu City Reef Rehabilitation Initiative’s post reads.

"But its inclusion in the IUCN Red List is intended to influence national and international policy and decision-making, and to provide information to guide actions towards its conservation and recovery,” it added.