Page 2 - ArcipelagoEgadi

Introduction stranded on the shore near Punta Carena, island of Capri
Collecting detailed biodiversity data and mapping (40.5358oN, 14.1978oE) on the morning of October 17th
2014. The squid had presumably died a few hours before
spatial patterns of marine biodiversity across large spa­ given the state of their flesh. All individuals showed clear
tial scales is challenging, and usually requires extensive skin damages and other injuries, including amputations
and expensive sampling. Often, such information re- of arms and tentacles and the absence of the head in the
mains in the grey literature and is thus largely unavail- smaller individual.
able to the scientific community (Katsanevakis et al.,
2014). This is particularly challenging when it comes to
marine alien species, which constitute one of the main
pressures driving biodiversity loss in the marine environ-
ment. Therefore, continuous efforts for monitoring and
reporting their occurrence and expansion is now more
vital than ever, especially in Europe under the concept of
the recent EU Regulation 1143/2014.

The Mediterranean Marine Science, journal recogniz-
ing the importance of archiving records of species found in
the Mediterranean Sea, offers the means to publish biodi-
versity records, either native or alien, through its Collective
Article ‘New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records’.
Submissions to the Collective Article are peer-reviewed by
at least one reviewer and the editor, and the contributors of
records are co-authors, their names appearing in alphabeti-
cal order. This article is divided into two main sections, the
first for native species and the second for alien species. The
contributing authors are also cited at the beginning of the
sub-section corresponding to their record.

1. Native species Fig. 1: Ventral view of the Ommastrephes bartramii individu-
als collected from Capri Island. Scale bar: 100 mm.
1.1. On the presence of Ommastrephes bartramii
(Cephalopoda: Ommastrephidae) in the waters of
the island of Capri, Thyrrenian Sea

By F.A. Fernández-Álvarez and A. Escánez This is the first record known to date of Ommastrephes
bartramii on the shores of the island of Capri. The pres-
The neon flying squid Ommastrephes bartramii ence of subadult individuals in late summer and autumn
(Lesueur, 1821) is a large ommastrephid squid, reach- in the Thyrrenian Sea is in agreement with Lefkaditou et
ing a maximum size of 1020 mm in dorsal mantle length al. (2011). These three individuals were likely attacked
(DML) (Guerra et al., 2010), although the majority of and killed by fish or discarded from trawlers, since it is
the specimens measure up to 450 mm in males and up to considered a low-quality species in this region (Battaglia
600 mm in females (Jereb & Roper, 2010). This species et al., 2010). The scarcity of O. bartramii records in the
is widely distributed in subtropical and temperate zones central Mediterranean contrasts with the frequency of oc-
of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans with a depth currence in the stomach contents of apex predators such
range from 1500 m to near the surface, in the bathymetric as odontocetes, tunas and swordfish from the same area
layers above 200 m (Jereb & Roper, 2010). Although this (e.g. Romeo et al., 2012). This suggests that the pres-
species supports an important fishery in the North Pacific ence of O. bartramii in the area is not rare and that the
Ocean (Jereb & Roper, 2010), it is rather rarely caught in low number of squid recorded may be due to the scar-
the Mediterranean Sea. Most of the reports listed in the city of fishing fleets targeting ommastrephid squids in
review of the Mediterranean records by Lefkaditou et al. the Mediterranean Sea. Other authors have suggested an
(2011) concern single large individuals apart from those increasing presence of this species in the Mediterranean,
coming from experimental jigging targeting this species which could be due to climate change (Lefkaditou et
and professional jigging of pelagic Ommastrephids in the al., 2011) and the misidentification of this species as
Aeolian Islands at the southernmost part of the Tyrrhenian Todarodes sagittatus (Lamarck, 1798), which exhibits
Sea. Similarly, the more recent records from the Ionian Sea external similarities (Kapiris et al., 2014). However, as
concerned five large females (Kapiris et al., 2014). shown by the analysis of teuthophagus predators (Romeo
et al., 2012) as well as by the analysis of artisanal jigging
We hereby report 3 subadult individuals of neon fly-
ing squid (Fig. 1), 242, 200 and 165 mm in DML, found

Medit. Mar. Sci., 16/2, 2015, 472-488 473