Critically endangered fish species of Turkish Seas (Mediterranean and Aegean): Longfin gurnard, Chelidonichthys obscurus (Walbaum, 1792)

Longfin gurnard Chelidonichthys obscurus (Walbaum, 1792) is reported several times from various researchers in the checklist of Turkish marine fishes. However, last three decades, the species is not occurred in the distributional range, comprising the northeastern Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Sea coast of Turkey. It is possibly critically endangered or absent in the Turkish Seas. Moreover, there has no any biological study been carried out on C. obscurus in Turkey. C. obscurus is considered to be critically endangered or regionally extinct in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Sea coast of Turkey. This species might be recorded as “Critically Endangered” in the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea coast of Turkey in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Pojava plavog dugmeta Porpita porpita (Linnaeus, 1758) zaljev Iskenderun, sjeveroistočna mediteranska obala Turske

The blue button Porpita porpita (Linnaeus, 1758) was observed for the first time in July 2018 in the Iskenderun Bay, Northeastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. This is the third record of this species for Turkish marine waters, while it is the first record for Iskenderun bay. The presence of P. porpita in the northeastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey shows its extension from northwestern Mediterranean coast (Antalya Bay) of Turkey.Plavo dugme Porpita porpita (Linnaeus, 1758.) prvi je put primijećen u srpnju 2018. u zaljevu Iskenderun, sjeveroistočna obala Mediterana u Turskoj. Ovo je treći zapis ove vrste za tursko more, a prvi je zabilježeni nalaz za zaljev Iskenderun. Prisutnost P. porpita na sjeveroistočnoj mediteranskoj obali Turske pokazuje njezino proširenje od sjeverozapadne mediteranske obale (zaljev Antalya) u Turskoj

Occurrence of the Red Sea goatfish Parupeneus forsskali (Fourmanoir & Guézé, 1976) (Perciformes: Mullidae) from Iskenderun Bay, Northeastern Mediterranean

On 15 March 2015, a single specimen of Parupeneus forsskali (Fourmanoir & Guézé, 1976) was captured by a trammel net at a depth of 30 m from Iskenderun Bay. The occurrence of the Red Sea goatfish P. forsskali was reported for the first time in the Iskenderun Bay and the first captured data for the Turkish marine waters

A Checklist of the Non-indigenous Fishes in Turkish Marine Waters

A checklist of non-indigenous marine fishes including bony, cartilaginous and jawless distributed along the Turkish Marine Waters was for the first time generated in the present study. The number of records of non-indigenous fish species found in Turkish marine waters were 101 of which 89 bony, 11 cartilaginous and 1 jawless. In terms of occurrence of non-indigenous fish species in the surrounding Turkish marine waters, the Mediterranean coast has the highest diversity (92 species), followed by the Aegean Sea (50 species), the Marmara Sea (11 species) and the Black Sea (2 species). The Indo-Pacific origin of the non-indigenous fish species is represented with 73 species while the Atlantic origin of the non-indigenous species is represented with 22 species. Only first occurrence of a species in the Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara and Black Sea Coasts of Turkey is given with its literature in the list

Threatened brill species in marine waters of Turkey: Scopthalmus rhombus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Scopthalmidae)

Scopthalmus rhombus is rarely occurred and restricted to marine and estuarine sites in the eastern Marmara Sea and western Black Sea coast of Turkey. S. rhombus is occasionally caught in low numbers and continuously decreased in abundance due to overfishing and habitat degradations. This species should be considered to be threatened for Turkish marine waters. This species might also be recorded in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as Near Threatened (NT)

First record red lionfish Pterois volitans (Linnaeus, 1785) in the Mediterranean Sea

A single male specimen of red lionfish Pterois volitans was recorded for the first time in 13 May 2016 from the Iskenderun Bay, North-eastern Mediterranean, Turkey. The present paper also reports the first record of the red lionfish P. volitans along the Mediterranean Sea

Phylogenetic Relationships of Turbot Species (Scophthalmidae) Inferred from the Mitochondrial COIII Gene and Morphological Characters

In this study, the validity, distribution and structure of three turbot species, Scophthalmus maeoticus, S. maximus, S. rhombus, belong to Scophthalmidae family in Turkish, Bulgarian and Russian coastal waters were determined with mtDNA sequencing of Cytochrome c oxidase subunit III (COIII). The sequencing of the COIII region revealed 8 bp variable and 6 bp parsimony informative sites between all turbot species. The overall genetic and haplotype diversities among all turbot species were found to be 0.004109 and 0.7655, respectively. Genetic distance analysis showed that the highest nucleotide differences was observed between S. maximus and S. rhombus species with a value of 0.09620 and, the lowest value (0.02482) was observed between S. maximus and S. maeoticus species. Neighbor Joining and Maximum Parsimony phylogenetic approaches resulted in the similar tree topologies that S. maximus and S. maeoticus were found as sister group, whereas S. rhombus was more divergent from this group. The mtDNA COIII gene is a useful genetic marker for species specific identification of the genus Scophthalmus due to its inter-specific heterogeneity producing a species-specific pattern. In morphological analyses, S. rhombus was most differentiated from S. maximus and S. maeoticus. The genetic data was supported by the detected morphometric variations among the turbot species

Morphologic identification of Tilapia (Chiclidae) species found in Çukurova and Hatay regions

Çalışmada Tilapia türlerinin yayılım alanlarını içeren Çukurova ve Hatay Bölgeleri'ndeki nehir, göl ve su ürünleri yetiştiricilik istasyonlarından dört tilapia türü Oreochromis aureus, Oreochromis niloticus, Tilapia zillii ve Tilapia rendalli örnekleri toplanmıştır. Tilapiaların morfolojik ayrımında morfometrik ve meristik karakterler kullanılmıştır. Morfometrik karakterlerin kümelerarası korelyon analizinde sadece Çukurova Üniversitesi (ÇÜ) O. aureus örneği belirgin bir şekilde ayrılık göstermiş diğer türler ise birbiri üzerine kümelenmiştir. Meristik karekterier bakımından ise genel olarak türler ve türlere ait populasyonlar belirgin bir ayrılık göstermiştir. Fakat T. rendalli, O. niloticus ye O. auratus ÇÜ örnekleri birbiri üzerine kümeleşerek bir farklılık göstermemiştir.Morphologic identification of tilapia (Chiclidae) species found in Çukurova And Hatay Regions In this study, four species of Tilapia Oreochromis aureus, 0. niloticus, Tilapia zillii and T. rendalli were collected from distributional range comprising lakes, rivers and Aquaculture research centers in Çukurova and Hatay regions. Morphometric and meristic characters were used for morphologic identification. Discriminant fuction anaiysis of morphometric characters revealed clear morphometric discreteness of Çukurova University (ÇÜ) 0. aureus sample, and other specieas were overlapped together, in meristic characters, species and populations were clearly separated from each other. However T. rendalli, 0. niloticus and 0. auratus from ÇÜ samples were overlapped together and showed no meristic differences. Principal component anaiysis revealed that giil rakers and anal fin rays were important key characters to discriminate species