We report the capture of a specimen of Selene dorsalis (Gill; 1862); a rare species in waters north of the Cape Verde Islands and Senegal. This is the first time that it has been recorded among the ichthyofauna of the Canary Islands.Se informa de la captura de un ejemplar de Selene dorsalis (Gill; 1862); especie rara en las aguas al norte de las islas de Cabo Verde y Senegal. Es la primera cita de esta especie para la ictiofauna de las islas Canarias.Instituto Español de Oceanografí

Castro-Hernández, J.J.

English

Digital.CSIC

First record of Selene dorsalis (Gill; 1862) (Osteichthyes: Carangidae) in the Canary Islands (Central-east Atlantic)

Repositorio Institucional Digital del IEO

NOTEFirst record of Selene dorsalis (Gill, 1862) (Osteichthyes: Carangidae) in the Canary Islands(Central-east Atlantic)J. J. Castro-HernándezDepartamento de Biología, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Edifício de Ciencias Básicas, Campus de Tafira.35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. E-mail: josejuan.castro@biologia.ulpgc.esReceived February 2001. Accepted July 2001.ABSTRACTWe report the capture of a specimen of Selene dorsalis (Gill, 1862), a rare species in watersnorth of the Cape Verde Islands and Senegal. This is the first time that it has been recordedamong the ichthyofauna of the Canary Islands. Key words: Selene dorsalis, Central-east Atlantic, Canary Islands.RESUMENPrimera cita de Selene dorsalis (Gill, 1862) (Osteichthyes: Carangidae) en las islas Canarias(Atlántico centro-oriental)Se informa de la captura de un ejemplar de Selene dorsalis (Gill, 1862), especie rara en  las aguas alnorte de las islas de Cabo Verde y Senegal. Es la primera cita de esta especie para la ictiofauna de las islasCanarias.Palabras clave: Selene dorsalis, Atlántico centro-oriental, islas Canarias.333Bol. Inst. Esp. Oceanogr. 17 (3 y 4). 2001: 333-335 BOLETÍN. INSTITUTO ESPAÑOL DE OCEANOGRAFÍAISSN: 0074-0195© Instituto Español de Oceanografía, 2001In September 2000 a specimen of the Africanmoonfish Selene dorsalis (Gill, 1862) was fished offTazacorte, on the  west coast of La Palma Island (28º38’ N, 17º 58’ W; Canary Islands). The individual wascaught during the night in surface waters, using apurse seine (Bas et al., 1995), together with horsemackerel Trachurus picturatus (Bowdich, 1825). Thisis the first time that S. dorsalis has been recorded as amember of the ichthyofauna of the Canary Islands.The specimen’s total length was 23.3 cm, and itweighed 142.9 g of weight (table I). The distinctivecharacters were coincident with those given bySmith-Vaniz and Berry (1981). The body was short,very deep (its depth being 2.06 times its forklength) and extremely compressed, with ventralprofile more convex than dorsal. Head profilerounded at top and sharply sloping through aslight concavity in front of the eye to a blunt snoutwith lower jaw protruding (figure 1). Eye moder-ately small, with head length 4.3 times its diameter,compared with the range of 3.3 to 4.2 given bySmith-Vaniz and Berry (1981). Upper jaw short, ex-panded at the posterior end, and ending far belowand about under the anterior margin of the eye.Lower jaw had a narrow irregular band tapering toan irregular row posteriorly. Gill-rakers (includingrudiments): 8 upper, 31 lower. Contrary to report-ed by Smith-Vaniz and Berry (1981), African look-down showed two dorsal fins, as reported for juve-niles shorter than 6 cm fork length by Smith-Vanizand Berry (1981, 1986). First dorsal fin with 4spines (0.82 cm in length), preceded by 3 smallerones (not very apparent) separated from the fin.The longest (second) spine of the first dorsal finabout equal in length to body thickness taken atthe level of the pectoral fin (0.82 cm). Between firstand second dorsal fin there were 3 other spines.Second dorsal fin with 1 spine and 23 soft rays(8.82 cm in length). Anal fin with 2 spines (reab-sorbed and not apparent) separated from the rest ofthe fin, followed by 1 spine and 20 soft rays (8.97 cm in length). Second dorsal fin lobe only slightlyelongated, contained 10.6 times in fork length (therange given by Smith-Vaniz and Berry (1981) wasfrom 7.2 to 10.1 times). Pelvic fin relatively short,becoming nearly rudimentary (one-third of the up-per jaw length).Scales small and cycloid (smooth to touch), cov-ering most of the lower half of the body but absentanteriorly on most of area from pelvic fin base tojunction of curved and straight parts of lateral line.Scutes in straight part of lateral line weak, scarcelydifferentiated, numbering 17 over caudal peduncle.When fresh, the body and head were silvery, witha light metallic bluish cast dorsally. A faint dark spoton edge of opercle near upper margin and a nar-row black area on top of caudal peduncle. The spec-imen also showed a narrow black line along the tipof the snout, from the ventral edge of the lower jawto almost the lower margin of the eye. Fins wereclear, with olive yellow tints on second dorsal, anal,pectoral and caudal fin lobes. Pelvic fins white.The Eastern Atlantic distribution of S. dorsalis isnot well established, the species being rare north of18º N (Smith-Vaniz and Berry, 1986). However,there are records in the literature for Portugal andMadeira (Smith-Vaniz and Berry, 1981; Smith-Vaniz, Quéro and Desoutter, 1990). The Africanlook-down is common off the Cape Verde Islands,and from Senegal to South Africa (Smith-Vaniz andBerry, 1981; Seret, 1990). The species is caughtwith pelagic and bottom trawls, especially offGhana (Smith-Vaniz and Berry, 1981), and its cap-tures from 1987 to 1996 fluctuated between 1 940and 6 077 metric tons (Anon., 1998).S. dorsalis is a schooling species that lives near thebottom, from inshore waters to depths of at least100 m (Smith-Vaniz and Berry, 1981, 1986). Youngof  less than 3 cm fork length occur near the sur-face, and  juveniles may be found in bays and rivermouths (Smith-Vaniz and Berry, 1981). The pres-ence of this and other tropical and rare fish species(Castro-Hernández and Martín-Gutiérrez, 2000) inwaters of the Canary Islands could be related to cli-matic events that produce episodes of local warm-ing, probably related with fluctuations in the frontalzones between Cape Blanc and Cape Verde(Wauthy, 1983) and the North Atlantic Oscillation. J. J. Castro-Hernández First record of Selene dorsalis in Canary IslandsBol. Inst. Esp. Oceanogr. 17 (3 y 4). 2001: 333-335334Table I. Morphometric and meristic data of the specimen ofSelene dorsalis caught in La Palma IslandcmTotal length 23.3Fork length 20.2Standard length 18.8Head length 5.2Eye diameter 0.95Base of the first dorsal fin 0.82Base of the second dorsal fin 8.82Base of anal fin 8.97Length of pelvic fin 0.76Length of pectoral fin 6.38First dorsal fin distance 5.0Second dorsal fin distance 8.77Prepectoral fin distance 5.77Preanal fin distance 9.03Prepelvic fin distance 5.47Length of caudal peduncle 1.6Upper jaw length 2.32Lower jaw length 2.11Body depth 9.8Total weight 142.9 gFin rays1st Dorsal III + IV + III2nd Dorsal I + 23Pelvic 6Pectoral 17Anal II + I + 20Scutes over caudal peduncle 17Upper gill rakers 8Lower gill rakers 31ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSMy thanks to the fishermen’s associations Virgende Las Nieves of Santa Cruz de La Palma andTazacorte (La Palma, Canary Islands), and to MrHermenegildo (Gildo) Martín González for mak-ing possible this new record for the ichthyofauna ofthe Canary Islands. REFERENCESAnon. 1998. FAO Fisheries Series 50. FAO Statistics Series140. In: FAO yearbook. Fishery statistics. Capture production1996. Vol 82: 694 pp. Food and AgricultureOrganization. Rome.Bas, C., J. J. Castro, V. Hernández-García, J. M. Lorenzo, T.Moreno, J. G. Pajuelo and A. G. Ramos. 1995. La pesca enCanarias y áreas de influencia. Ediciones del CabildoInsular de Gran Canaria. Madrid: 331 pp.Castro-Hernández, J. J. and A. Y. Martín-Gutiérrez. 2000.First record of Holocentrus ascensionis (Osbeck, 1765)(Osteichthyes: Holocentridae) in the Canary Islands(Central-east Atlantic). Scientia Marina 64 (1): 115-116.Seret, B. 1990. Poissons de mer de l’ouest africain tropical.Orstom. Paris: 450 pp.Smith-Vaniz, W. F. and F. H. Berry. 1981. Carangidae. In:FAO Species Identification Sheets for Fishery Purposes. EasternCentral Atlantic; fishing Areas 34, 47 (in part). W. G. Fischer,G. Bianchi and W. B. Scott (eds.) II. CanadaFunds-in-Trust. Ottawa, Department of Fisheries andOceans Canada, by arrangement with the Food andAgriculture Organization of the United Nations. Ottawa,Canada.Smith-Vaniz, W. F. and F. H. Berry. 1986. Carangidae. In:Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. P. J.P. Whitehead, M. L. Bauchot, J. C. Hureau, J. Nielsen andE. Tortonese (eds.) II: 835-836. Unesco. Paris: 1 007 pp.Smith-Vaniz, W. F., J. C. Quéro and M. Desoutter. 1990.Carangidae. In: Check-list of Fishes of the Eastern TropicalAtlantic. J. C. Quéro, J. C. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post andL. Saldanha (eds.) II: 745-746. Junta Nacional deInvestigação Científica e Tecnológica, EuropeanIchthyological Union and Unesco. Lisbon: 1 080 pp.Wauthy, B. 1983. Introduction à la climatologie du Golfe deGuinée. Oceanographie Tropical 18: 103-138.J. J. Castro-Hernández First record of Selene dorsalis in Canary IslandsBol. Inst. Esp. Oceanogr. 17 (3 y 4). 2001: 333-335 335Figure 1. African lookdown Selene dorsalis

First record of Selene dorsalis (Gill; 1862) (Osteichthyes: Carangidae) in the Canary Islands (Central-east Atlantic)

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Digital.CSIC

Repositorio Institucional Digital del IEO