New data on the spreading of the fangtooth moray Enchelycore anatina (Lowe, 1838) in the Mediterranean Sea

10/17/2023 Arda Tonay

New data on the spreading of the fangtooth moray Enchelycore anatina (Lowe, 1838) in the Mediterranean Sea

Vincenzo Di Martino, Bessy Stancanelli 

ORCID IDs: V.D.M. 0000-0002-5987-0954; B.S. 0000-0001-7126-0633

CNR/ISAFoM (National Research Council of Italy/Institute for Agricultural and Forestry System in the Mediterranean); via Empedocle, 58; 95128 Catania, ITALY
Aqua Stories; via Vampolieri, 25/31 int. 27; 95022 Aci Catena (Catania), ITALY

Abstract 

Fangtooth moray, Enchelycore anatina (Lowe, 1838), native to the tropical Atlantic Ocean, has a rapid expansion in the eastern and central sectors of the Mediterranean in the last thirty years. This species is now beginning to colonize along the Italian coasts of the Adriatic Sea and the western Mediterranean. In summer of 2021 and 2022, 12 specimens of fangtooth moray were recorded in Puglia (Adriatic Sea), Sardinia and Sicily. As hypothesized in previous studies, it seems probable that the successful expansion of this species is due both to the long pelagic period of its larval stage and to the increase in the temperature of the Mediterranean waters.

Keywords: Enchelycore anatina, Adriatic Sea, central Mediterranean, western Mediterranean

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