This dataset analyses the potential habitat change, in 2020, of eight marine species with very high commercial importance in the Adriatic Sea: European hake (Merluccius merluccius), common sole (Solea solea), mantis shrimp (Squilla mantis), red mullet (Mullus barbatus), common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis), European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), European pilchard (Sardina pilchardus), and deep water rose shrimp (Parapenaeus longirostris). These species are targets of beam and mid-water trawlers and purse seine vessels in the Adriatic Sea. They accounted for about 30% of the total catch in the basin in 2019, with a 140k tonnes overall catch. The high fishing stress these species - and most Adriatic stocks - undergo make them an interesting test bed to understand how the coupling of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change potentially influenced their presence in the Adriatic. This assessment is important for all the fisheries that target these species and also sheds light about the magnitude of change that can occur in one year of reduced anthropogenic pressure. Additionally, it indicates the sensitivity of the species' habitats to environmental change and can be used to predict the economic and ecological damage of a return to pre-pandemic human activity level.