OCCURRENCES OF PTEROIS MILES (BENNETT, 1828) BETWEEN 1992 AND 2016 FROM TURKEY AND THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Occurrences of Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828) between 1992 and 2016 from Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea

Gökçen Bilge, Halit Filiz, Sercan Yapıcı

Faculty of Fisheries, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, 48000, Kötekli, Muğla, TURKEY

Abstract

The devil firefish, Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828), is an invasive venomous Lessepsian fish species with a wide distribution within tropical waters of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. The first Mediterranean record of P. miles was reported from Haifa Bay in 1991 and 22 years later, two specimens were reported from the Lebanese coast. Even though this species is considered as rare in the Mediterranean Sea up to 2015, it was recorded with an increasing rate from the Mediterranean coast of Turkey recently. In this study, a review of the scientific reports is given in the Mediterranean Sea with the reports of P. miles sightings on electronic social media, which were photographed by local divers in the Turkish coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Date of sighting, locality, depth, water temperature and other information were also recorded. The aim of the present study is to compile information about the increasing occurrence of the species in the Turkish coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.

Keywords: Devil firefish, Lessepsian fish, biological invasion, Mediterranean Sea

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