Oceanic cephalopods from western Canary Islands collected during CETOBAPH mesopelagic survey: distribution and biodiversity

1 póster.-- IV Congreso de Ciencias del Mar, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 11-13 de junio de 2014Oceanic cephalopods, especially squids, are one of the main animals in oceanic ecosystems and constitute a key group in marine food webs. Despite of their importance a small number of research cruises targeting on this group have been conducted in the Canary Islands. We report herein on the micronektonic component of the pelagic assemblage in the Canary region.This work has been supported by the project “Cetáceos, Oceanografía y Biodiversidad de las Aguas Profundas de La Palma y El Hierro” funded by “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación” of the Spanish Government, grant number CETOBAPH-CGL2009-1311218.Peer reviewe

On the occurrence of egg masses of the diamondshaped squid Thysanoteuthis rhombus Troschel, 1857 in the subtropical eastern Atlantic (Canary Islands). A potential commercial species?

8 páginas, 2 figuras, 1 tablaData on opportunistic sightings of diamond-shaped squid Thysanoteuthis rhombus egg masses in the Canary Islands (Atlantic Ocean) are presented. A total of 16 egg masses of this species were recorded and photographed from 2000 to 2010 around the western islands of the archipelago (El Hierro, Tenerife and La Gomera). These data reveal the existence of an important spawning area for diamond-shaped squid around the Canary Islands, in subtropical east Atlantic waters. We provide preliminary data for the potential development of an artisanal fishery focused on this species, and a discussion on its potential impacts on the marine ecosystem.This work has been supported by the project “Cetáceos, Oceanografía y Biodiversidad de las Aguas Profundas de La Palma y El Hierro” funded by the Ministry of Sciences and Innovation of the Spanish Government, grant number CETOBAPH-CGL2009-1311218.Peer reviewe

Revised species records reveal the Canary Islands as a cephalopod biodiversity hotspot

13 pages, 3 figures, 2 tableCephalopods are a diverse group of species, with a high ecological and economic relevance. Despite this, its species diversity has been studied in few places at regional scale. We herein aim to update the current state of knowledge and diversity of cephalopods fauna of the Canary Islands. We carried out a systematic review of the available literature regarding cephalopod species in the area spanned from 1834 to 2019. More specifically, we reviewed (a) records of historic and recent research cruises; (b) records of species from scientific literature and technical reports; and (c) stomach contents analysis of top predators. A total of 48 documents, including scientific literature, technical reports, and species referenced in museums collections of cephalopods caught around the Canary Islands were identified. The current species richness in different habitats from coastal to deep-sea zones was determined according to records and previous information on the ecology of each species. These records revealed that this small archipelago holds 85 confirmed species belonging to 31 families, representing ca. 10% of the overall known cephalopod diversity. The cephalopod community was dominated by oceanic cephalopods, followed by shelf-slope and coastal cephalopods species with 65, 11, and 9 species, respectively. 47% of the species showed a wide geographic distribution (33 cosmopolitan and 7 presents in more than one ocean), whereas 19 are only encountered in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea and 26 are exclusively Atlantic. This species richness is comparable to other cephalopod biodiversity hotspots, such as the Indian Ocean Ridge or the Caribbean. The Canarian cephalopod diversity likely to be underestimated, since scarce information exists on species inhabiting the deeper water layers around the Canary Islands. This work represents the first baseline of cephalopod biodiversity around the Canary Islands; hence, it constitutes a first step to develop future research on this taxonomic groupThis work has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Sciences and Innovation via the National Plan Research Projects (DeepCet CTM2017-88686-P)Peer reviewe

Opportunistic acoustic recordings of (potential) orangeback flying squid Sthenoteuthis pteropus in the Central Eastern Atlantic

7 pages, 6 figures, 1 tableSquids are fast swimmers that are difficult to catch by nets and to record with echosounders in the open ocean. A rare detection of orangeback flying squid Sthenoteuthis pteropus in the Central Eastern Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Senegal was accomplished during the MAFIA oceanographic survey carried out between Brazil and the Canary Islands in April 2015. Although net sampling did not yield any subadult or adult individuals, dozens were visually detected from the vessel jumping out of the water at night and displaying their characteristic dorsal photophore patch. A few squids were caught with fishing lines and identified at the species level. The acoustic echograms revealed distinctive previously unobserved acoustic echotraces that seemed to be caused by those squids, which were the only new species detected at that station (over a bottom depth ranging from 4010 to 5215 m, between 10° 45′ N 22° 41′ W and 10° 53′ N 22° 40′ W). The acoustic response and swimming behaviour shown by those echotraces reinforced this hypothesis. The (potentially) squid recordings dove rapidly (0.19 m/s to 0.48 m/s) from around 10 m below the mesopelagic fish layer, which had migrated to the subsurface at night (35 m depth), to depths of 70–95 m, and swam upward, apparently attacking fish from below. The morning squid migration to deeper waters (250–300 m) was also recorded acoustically. Downward movements of squid swimming at speeds of 0.22 m/s were calculated from the echogram, while the mesopelagic migrating fish swam at 0.27 m/s reaching 250 m depth. S − S averaged 2.7 ± 3.2 dB for the squid echotraces while the mesopelagic layer showed values of −8.8 ± 0.9 dB. These ranges agreed with values in the literature and from theoretical models. This study provides more insight into the migrating behaviour of oceanic squids, a species group that is poorly represented in the acoustic literature due to challenges in studying themThis research was funded by Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) through project CTM2012-39587-C04-03. RV was financed by the MINECO project AGL2012-39077Peer Reviewe

New records of the scaled squid, lepidoteuthis grimaldii joubin, 1895 in the canary islands, eastern atlantic ocean (Cephalopoda, oegopsida, lepidoteuthidae)

6 pages, 2 tables, 3 figuresTwo well conserved female specimens of the uncommon soft-scaled squid Lepidoteuthis grimaldii Joubin, 1895 (Lepidoteuthidae, Oegopsida) were caught in Canary Island waters: a maturing female of 580 mm dorsal mantle length found dead on the surface at 27°38' N, 18°01' W (near El Hierro Island); an immature female of 350 mm dorsal mantle length captured by commercial open midwater trawl at 28°48' N, 16°00' W (north of Tenerife Island), between 342 and 487 m depth. This is the first report of an adult of this species from the Canary Islands. Morphological data are presented and the bathymetric distribution of this species in Canary waters is discussedThis work has been supported by the project “Cetáceos, Oceanografía y Biodiversidad de las Aguas Profundas de La Palma y El Hierro” funded by “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación” of the Spanish Government, grant number CETOBAPH-CGL2009-1311218Peer reviewe

Estudio del primer área de cría del Angelote (Squatina squatina) descubierta en Canarias

En este trabajo se comprueba que la playa de las Teresitas (Tenerife, Islas Canarias) es una zona de cría para el angelote (Squatina squatina, Linaeus 1758), según los tres criterios propuestos por Heupel y colaboradores (2007). Para ello se tomaron datos de densidad, abundancia y talla de los animales a lo largo de los 12 meses del año, validando diversas técnicas de muestreo para la realización de estudios sobre distribución y abundancia de crías de esta especie, con el fin de establecer una metodología fiable que pudiera ser utilizada de forma estandarizada en otras partes del territorio. Así, se comprobó que: (1) los juveniles de angelotes se encuentran más fácilmente en la playa de las Teresitas que en otras áreas, (2) los juveniles tienden a permanecer en la playa y retornar a ella, (3) el uso de la playa como criadero se mantiene a través de los años. Además, se comprobó que los muestreos nocturnos son los más adecuados para la estima de la densidad y abundancia de crías de esta especie seriamente amenazada

Sobre la presencia de puestas de huevos del calamar diamante (Thysanoteuthis rombus, Troshel 1857) en el Atlántico este subtropical (Islas Canarias). ¿Un nuevo recurso pesquero para Canarias?

9 pages, 1 table, 1 figure.-- V Foro Iberoamericano de los Recursos Marinos y de la Acuicultura, Cádiz, 26-29 de noviembre de 2012El calamar diamante (Thysanoteuthis rhombus) es una especie de hábitos oceánicos, que realiza migraciones entre las capas profundas mesopelágicas (1.000 m) y superÞ ciales, durante la noche. Alcanza tallas considerables de hasta 1 m de longitud de manto y pesos superiores a los 20 kg. Esta especie tiene interés pesquero y en la actualidad la principal pesquería de esta especie se localiza en el Mar del Japón, donde se capturan cantidades superiores a 6.000 toneladas por año. Sin embargo las zonas de reproducción de esta especie son poco conocidas en la actualidad, sólo han sido registradas 29 puestas en total, en Jamaica, Japón e Indonesia. Estas puestas parecen acontecer en superÞ cie en zonas tropicales y subtropicales de todos los océanos del mundo. En este trabajo se han recopilado datos oportunistas sobre avistamientos de puestas de huevos del calamar rombo en aguas de las Islas Canarias occidentales (Tenerife, La Gomera, El Hierro y La Palma). Un total de 16 puestas han sido registradas, fotograÞ adas y georeferenciadas durante los años 2000 y 2012. Estos datos revelan la existencia de una importante área de reproducción para el calamar rombo en las Islas Canarias y por tanto una zona potencial para su pesca. Se presentan aquí datos preliminares para el desarrollo de una pesquería artesanal sobre esta especie en Canarias, así como las técnicas necesarias para elloN

New contribution to the knowledge of the mesopelagic cephalopod community off the western Canary Islands slope

8 pages, 6 figures, 4 tablesCephalopods are a key component of the marine food webs. Nevertheless, the deep-sea cephalopods are still poorly studied worldwide. The distribution and composition of the mesopelagic cephalopod’s community in different deep scattering layers from the Canary Islands (North-eastern Atlantic) are described here. The results of a mesopelagic fishing survey (CETOBAPH) at the western slopes of three islands of the Canary archipelago (El Hierro, La Palma and Tenerife) are reported. A total of 3,717 specimens of 17 families were caught at different acoustic scattering layers previously detected in depth. The pelagic families Pyroteuthidae, Enoploteuthidae, Onychoteuthidae and Cranchiidae comprised 91% of the total cephalopod catch. Species belonging to these families were responsible for the differences found in the cephalopod community assembly between the shallow sound scattering layers, situated at night in the epipelagic zone and deep sound scattering layers in the mesopelagic zone. No differences were observed in the cephalopod community composition among the three sampled islands. The species richness among islands were similar with 32, 30 and 31 species collected for El Hierro, La Palma and Tenerife, respectively. These results suggest the existence of vertical but no horizontal segregation of small cephalopod species at the mesoscale level in the Canary IslandsThis work has been partially funded by the Spanish government via the Nationals Plans of Research, projects: CETOBAPH (CGL2009-13112) and DeepCom (CTM2017-88686-P). Alejandro Escánez is financed by “Margarita Salas” post-doctoral research contract funded by the Next Generation EU (NGEU) fund of the European Union and the “Plan de Recuperación Transformación y Resiliencia” of the Government of SpainPeer reviewe

New Data on the Systematics of Comb-fin Squids Chtenopteryx spp. (Cephalopoda: Chtenopterygidae) from the Canary Islands

11 pages, 5 figures, 11 tablesThe systematics of the comb-fin squid species is problematic and poorly resolved. In total, 53 specimens of comb-fin squids (Chtenopteryx spp.) were caught at depths ranging from 30 to 800 m off the Canary Islands (NE Atlantic Ocean). Mantle lengths of the individuals ranged from 18 to 43 mm and the sample included immature, mature male and mature female specimens. Two species of comb-fin squids, Chtenopteryx canariensis and C. sicula, were identified by combining traditional morphological characters with a molecular analysis of a fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. Intra- and interspecific genetic distances and maximum likelihood tree analyses based on COI sequences available from GenBank suggest the existence of at least four species, two from the Pacific and two from the Atlantic Ocean. Our data expand the current geographic range of C. canariensis from the NE to NW Atlantic. In the GenBank database, several sequences of comb-fin squid in different species-specific clades have been attributed only to C. sicula, indicating the possible existence of cryptic species and the need to re-analyse these data.Peer reviewe

Trophic resources of blainville's beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) and cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) in El Hierro, Canary islands

25th Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society, Long-term datasets on marine mammals: learning from the past to manage the future, 21st – 23rd March 2011, Cádiz, SpainTrophic resources of Blainville's beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) and Cuvier beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) residents of the island of El Hierro, Canary Islands, are poorly studied. The only existing data on diet of these species are from the stomach contents analysis of a few specimens stranded in different islands of this archipelagoN