An adult male specimen of the offshore rockfish, Pontinus kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825), was caught off

the coast of Alghero (NW Sardinia, Italy) in August 2004. That capture represents the second documented record

of this Atlantic migrant in Italian waters, after more than a century from the first report. Furthermore, the new

specimen is the largest specimen of this species ever recorded in the Mediterranean Basin and the most northern

capture for this geographic area. Morphologic and meristic characters of the collected fish are described and the

existence of a Mediterranean population is hypothesized

Chessa, Lorenzo Antonio

Delrio, Gavino

Pais, Antonio

Acta Ichthyologica Et Piscatoria

English

Antonio Pais

Lorenzo A. Chessa

Gavino Delrio

Crossref

Northernmost occurrence of the offshore rockfish, Pontinus kuhlii (Scorpaeniformes: Scorpaenidae), in the Mediterranean Sea

An adult male specimen of the offshore rockfish, Pontinus kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825), was caught off the coast of Alghero (NW Sardinia, Italy) in August 2004. That capture represents the second documented record of this Atlantic migrant in Italian waters, after more than a century from the first report. Furthermore, the new specimen is the largest specimen of this species ever recorded in the Mediterranean Basin and the most northern capture for this geographic area. Morphologic and meristic characters of the collected fish are described and the existence of a Mediterranean population is hypothesized

Pais,A.

Chessa,L.A.

Delrio,G.

ARPHA Preprints

An adult male specimen of the offshore rockfish,Pontinus kuhlii(Bowdich, 1825), was caught off
the coast of Alghero (NW Sardinia, Italy) in August 2004. That capture represents the second documented record
of this Atlantic migrant in Italian waters, after more than a century from the first report. Furthermore, the new
specimen is the largest specimen of this species ever recorded in the Mediterranean Basin and the most northern
capture for this geographic area. Morphologic and meristic characters of the collected fish are described and the
existence of a Mediterranean population is hypothesized

CINECA IRIS Institutial research information system UNISS

According to Eschmeyer (1969), three species of thegenus Pontinus Poey, 1860 (Scorpaeniformes,Scorpaenidae) occur in the eastern Atlantic: P. accraensisNorman, 1935, P. kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825), and P. ledaEschmeyer, 1969. The offshore rockfish, Pontinus kuhlii,is a bathydemersal species that commonly lives on hardbottoms at depths from 100 to 450 metres (Hureau andLitvineko 1986, Eschmeyer and Dempster 1990). It is a widely distributed eastern Atlantic fish and its geograph-ic distribution extends from Madeira, the Azores, Portugaland the coast of Morocco to Mauritania and Cape VerdeIsland. Afonso et al. (1999) described a record from SãoTomé Island (Gulf of Guinea) while another record wasalso reported from South Africa (Hureau and Litvineko1986). In the Mediterranean Sea, Sauvage (1878)described Sebastes (Sebastichthys) bibroni as a newspecies on the basis of a single specimen (MNHN 7032)caught off the coast of Sicily, Italy. Subsequently, thespecies was synonymized with Scorpaena kuhlii(=Pontinus kuhlii). In the 20th century Massutí and Massó(1975) provided the second record of this scorpionfish forthe Mediterranean Basin upon capturing a specimen(described by Tortonese 1979) at the Cabo de Palos Bank(Spain). Recently, Merella et al. (1998) reported anotherrecord of this species from Mallorca (Balearic Islands,Spain). Studies on the biology of Pontinus kuhlii and lit-erature on the subject are scarce. Isidro (1990) andMonteiro et al. (1991) reported respectively on reproduc-tion and mercury contamination for fish collected in theAzores Archipelago. Krug et al. (1998) provided observa-ACTA ICHTHYOLOGICA ET PISCATORIA (2005) 35 (2): 143–145* Correspondence: Dr Antonio Pais, Sezione di Acquacoltura ed Ecologia Marina, Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche, Universit∑ di Sassari, Via E. De Nicola 9, 07100 Sassari, Italy, phone.: (+39) 079 229345, fax: (+39) 079 229302, e-mail: pais@uniss.itNORTHERNMOST OCCURRENCE  OF THE  OFFSHORE  ROCKFISH,  PONTINUS KUHLII(SCORPAENIFORMES:  SCORPAENIDAE),  IN  THE  MEDITERRANEAN  SEAAntonio PAIS 1*, Lorenzo A. CHESSA1, Gavino DELRIO 21 Sezione di Acquacoltura ed Ecologia Marina, Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche,2 Dipartimento di Protezione delle Piante;Universit∑ di Sassari, Sassari, ItalyPais A., Chessa L.A., Delrio G. 2005 Northernmost occurrence of the offshore rockfish, Pontinus kuhlii,(Scorpaeniformes: Scorpaenidae), in the Mediterranean Sea. Acta Ichthyol. Piscat. 35 (2): 143–145.Abstract. An adult male specimen of the offshore rockfish, Pontinus kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825), was caught off the coast of Alghero (NW Sardinia, Italy) in August 2004. That capture represents the second documented recordof this Atlantic migrant in Italian waters, after more than a century from the first report. Furthermore, the newspecimen is the largest specimen of this species ever recorded in the Mediterranean Basin and the most northerncapture for this geographic area. Morphologic and meristic characters of the collected fish are described and theexistence of a Mediterranean population is hypothesized.Key words: fish, zoogeography, offshore rockfish, Pontinus kuhlii, Scorpaenidae, Atlantic migrant,Mediterranean, ItalyFig. 1. Map showing where the herein reported specimen ofPontinus kuhlii was collected off Alghero, Sardinia, Italytions on age and growth for P. kuhlii from the same geo-graphic area, while López Abellán et al. (2001) studied thespecies age and growth from the Canary IslandsArchipelago.On 27 August 2004 an adult specimen of Pontinuskuhlii was caught by trammel net off the north-westerncoast of Alghero (Sardinia, Italy, 40°33’29’’N;8°19’20’’E) on a rocky bottom at a depth of about 120meters (Fig. 1). This fishing ground is commonly called“Secca Garofalo”. The fish (Fig. 2) was immediatelyfrozen by the fisherman who caught it and subsequentlyidentified using information in Eschmeyer (1969). Theidentification was based on the small scales (more thanabout 60 vertical scale rows) and elongate second and thirddorsal spines. Afterwards the specimen was weighed andmorphometric and meristic data were gathered (Table 1)following methods described by Strauss and Bond (1990).The specimen was then deposited in the ichthyologicalcollection of the Department of Animal Science,University of Sassari, Italy (registration code DSZ-11/04).The specimen was 34.4 cm long (total length) and itweighed 606.5 g. The stomach was empty and the testiclesspent. Hereafter follows a brief description of the fish exam-ined. Body relatively compressed, head moderately largewith well developed eyes in high position, and spines on topof head well developed. Two spines on pre-orbital and fouron sub-orbital bone. Mouth large with pale rose-colored cav-ity. Second and third dorsal fin spines longer than others, allpectoral fin rays unbranched. Caudal fin with truncated pos-terior margin. Scales ctenoid, 64 vertical rows of lateralscales, lateral line with 26 tubular scales. Swimbladder pres-ent. Body colour reddish, darker dorsally than ventrally.Yellow areas on maxillary, sub-orbital region, preoperculumand operculum. Numerous yellow spots on body sides,small red spots on soft part of dorsal fin and also on caudalfin. Dark blotches at base of dorsal spines and on occipitalregion. Ventral area (from isthmus to anal fin) whitish torose, without spots. White peritoneum.This is the fourth documented record of this migrantfrom the Atlantic Ocean in the Mediterranean Sea and,after more than a century from the first, the second capturePais et al.144Fig. 2. Pontinus kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825). Department of Animal Science, University of Sassari (Italy) ichthyological collection (ref. number DSZ-11/04)Table 1Morphometric and meristic data for Pontinus kuhliispecimen collected off the coast of Alghero; the Romanand Arabic numbers reported for dorsal, anal, and ventralfins indicate spines and soft rays, respectivelyin Italian waters. It is the largest specimen of this speciesrecorded in the Mediterranean Basin and the most north-ern capture for this region. Using the age-length relation-ship reported for this fish by López Abellán et al. (2001)from the Canary Islands, the newly reported specimenseems to have been between 9 and 15 years old. This newrecord of Pontinus kuhlii seems to confirm the hypothesisof Tortonese (1987) on the expanding range of this fish inthe western Mediterranean Sea. According to Merella etal. (1998), the scarcity of records of this species may part-ly be due to its rarity but also, and above all, to the diffi-culty of collecting samples from waters with non-trawlable deep rocky bottoms.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe authors wish to express their gratitude toGiuseppe Delrio, skipper of the F/V ETNA of Alghero, forproviding the specimen and for his active collaboration.Many thanks are also due to William N. Eschmeyer, PaoloMerella, Hiroyuki Motomura, and two anonymousreviewers for providing useful suggestions to improve themanuscript.REFERENCESAfonso P., Porteiro F.M., Santos R.S., Barreiros J.P., Worms J.,Wirtz P. 1999. Coastal marine fishes of São Tomé Island (Gulf ofGuinea). Arquipélago, Life and Marine Sciences (17A): 65–92.Eschmeyer W.N. 1969. A systematic review of the scorpionfish-es of the Atlantic Ocean (Pisces: Scorpaenidae). OccasionalPapers of the California Academy of Sciences 79: 1–130.Eschmeyer W.N., Dempster L.J. 1990. Scorpaenidae. pp.665–679. In: Quero J.C., Hureau J.C., Karrer C., Post A.,Saldanha L. (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the easterntropical Atlantic. Vol. 2. UNESCO, Paris.Hureau J.C., Litvineko N.I. 1986. Scorpaenidae. pp.1211–1229. In: Whitehead P.J.P., Bauchot M.L., Hureau J.C.,Nielsen J., Tortonese E. (eds.) Fishes of the North-easternAtlantic and the Mediterranean. Vol. III. UNESCO, Paris.Isidro E.J. 1990. Reproduction and population biology of twocommercial rockfish species from the Azores (Helicolenusdactylopterus and Pontinus kuhlii). Abstract of the FirstCongress on Oceanography and Marine Resources in theCentral-East Atlantic: 27b.Krug H., Rosa D., Menezes G., Pinho M. 1998. Age andgrowth of some demersal species of the Azores. ICES DocCM, 1998/O: 84.López Abellán L.J., Santamaría M.T.G., Conesa P. 2001. Ageand growth of Pontinus kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825) in theCanary Islands. Scientia Marina 65 (4): 259–267.Massutí M., Massó C. 1975. La pesca selectíva en el talud con-tinental. Bancos de pesca I: el banco de Capo palos. Boletíndel Instituto Español de Oceanografía 183: 1–26.Merella P., Alemany F., Grau A. 1998. New data on the occur-rence of Pontinus kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825) (Osteichthyes:Scorpaenidae) in the Western Mediterranean. Scientia Marina62 (1–2): 177–179.Monteiro L.R., Isidro E.J., Lopes H.D. 1991. Mercury contentin relation to sex, size, age and growth in two scorpionfish(Helicolenus dactylopterus and Pontinus kuhlii) fromAzorean waters. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 56: 359–367.Sauvage H.E. 1878. Description de poissons nouveaux ou impar-faitement connus de la collection du Muséum d’HistoireNaturelle; famille de scorpénidés, des platycéphalidés et destriglidés. Nouvelles Archives. Muséum National d’HistoireNaturelle, Series 2, 1: 109–158.Strauss R.E., Bond C.E. 1990. Taxonomic methods: morpholo-gy. pp. 109–140. In: Schreck C.B., Moyle P.B. (eds.) Methodsfor fish biology. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda.Tortonese E. 1979. Nota sobre la presenza di Pontinus kuhlii(Bowd.) in Mediterraneo (“Pisces Scorpaenidae”). Boletíndel Instituto Español de Oceanografía 5: 4–6.Tortonese E. 1987. Pesci del Mediterraneo. Recenti studi intornoalla sistematica e distribuzione. Quaderni dell’Istituto diIdrobiologia e Acquacoltura “G. Brunelli”. Il Ventaglio, Roma.Received: 21 November 2005Accepted: 15 December 2005Pontinus kuhlii from Italian waters 145

UnissResearch

According to Eschmeyer (1969), three species of the
genus Pontinus Poey, 1860 (Scorpaeniformes,
Scorpaenidae) occur in the eastern Atlantic: P. accraensis
Norman, 1935, P. kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825), and P. leda
Eschmeyer, 1969. The offshore rockfish, Pontinus kuhlii,
is a bathydemersal species that commonly lives on hard
bottoms at depths from 100 to 450 metres (Hureau and
Litvineko 1986, Eschmeyer and Dempster 1990). It is 
a widely distributed eastern Atlantic fish and its geograph-
ic distribution extends from Madeira, the Azores, Portugal
and the coast of Morocco to Mauritania and Cape Verde
Island. Afonso et al. (1999) described a record from São
Tomé Island (Gulf of Guinea) while another record was
also reported from South Africa (Hureau and Litvineko
1986). In the Mediterranean Sea, Sauvage (1878)
described Sebastes (Sebastichthys) bibroni as a new
species on the basis of a single specimen (MNHN 7032)
caught off the coast of Sicily, Italy. Subsequently, the
species was synonymized with Scorpaena kuhlii
(=Pontinus kuhlii). In the 20th century Massutí and Massó
(1975) provided the second record of this scorpionfish for
the Mediterranean Basin upon capturing a specimen
(described by Tortonese 1979) at the Cabo de Palos Bank
(Spain). Recently, Merella et al. (1998) reported another
record of this species from Mallorca (Balearic Islands,
Spain). Studies on the biology of Pontinus kuhlii and lit-
erature on the subject are scarce. Isidro (1990) and
Monteiro et al. (1991) reported respectively on reproduc-
tion and mercury contamination for fish collected in the
Azores Archipelago. Krug et al. (1998) provided observa-
ACTA ICHTHYOLOGICA ET PISCATORIA (2005) 35 (2): 143–145
* Correspondence: Dr Antonio Pais, Sezione di Acquacoltura ed Ecologia Marina, Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche, Universit∑ di Sassari, Via E. De Nicola 9, 
07100 Sassari, Italy, phone.: (+39) 079 229345, fax: (+39) 079 229302, e-mail: pais@uniss.it
NORTHERNMOST OCCURRENCE  OF THE  OFFSHORE  ROCKFISH,  PONTINUS KUHLII
(SCORPAENIFORMES:  SCORPAENIDAE),  IN  THE  MEDITERRANEAN  SEA
Antonio PAIS 1*, Lorenzo A. CHESSA1, Gavino DELRIO 2
1 Sezione di Acquacoltura ed Ecologia Marina, Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche,
2 Dipartimento di Protezione delle Piante;
Universit∑ di Sassari, Sassari, Italy
Pais A., Chessa L.A., Delrio G. 2005 Northernmost occurrence of the offshore rockfish, Pontinus kuhlii,
(Scorpaeniformes: Scorpaenidae), in the Mediterranean Sea. Acta Ichthyol. Piscat. 35 (2): 143–145.
Abstract. An adult male specimen of the offshore rockfish, Pontinus kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825), was caught off 
the coast of Alghero (NW Sardinia, Italy) in August 2004. That capture represents the second documented record
of this Atlantic migrant in Italian waters, after more than a century from the first report. Furthermore, the new
specimen is the largest specimen of this species ever recorded in the Mediterranean Basin and the most northern
capture for this geographic area. Morphologic and meristic characters of the collected fish are described and the
existence of a Mediterranean population is hypothesized.
Key words: fish, zoogeography, offshore rockfish, Pontinus kuhlii, Scorpaenidae, Atlantic migrant,
Mediterranean, Italy
Fig. 1. Map showing where the herein reported specimen of
Pontinus kuhlii was collected off Alghero, Sardinia, Italy
tions on age and growth for P. kuhlii from the same geo-
graphic area, while López Abellán et al. (2001) studied the
species age and growth from the Canary Islands
Archipelago.
On 27 August 2004 an adult specimen of Pontinus
kuhlii was caught by trammel net off the north-western
coast of Alghero (Sardinia, Italy, 40°33’29’’N;
8°19’20’’E) on a rocky bottom at a depth of about 120
meters (Fig. 1). This fishing ground is commonly called
“Secca Garofalo”. The fish (Fig. 2) was immediately
frozen by the fisherman who caught it and subsequently
identified using information in Eschmeyer (1969). The
identification was based on the small scales (more than
about 60 vertical scale rows) and elongate second and third
dorsal spines. Afterwards the specimen was weighed and
morphometric and meristic data were gathered (Table 1)
following methods described by Strauss and Bond (1990).
The specimen was then deposited in the ichthyological
collection of the Department of Animal Science,
University of Sassari, Italy (registration code DSZ-11/04).
The specimen was 34.4 cm long (total length) and it
weighed 606.5 g. The stomach was empty and the testicles
spent. Hereafter follows a brief description of the fish exam-
ined. Body relatively compressed, head moderately large
with well developed eyes in high position, and spines on top
of head well developed. Two spines on pre-orbital and four
on sub-orbital bone. Mouth large with pale rose-colored cav-
ity. Second and third dorsal fin spines longer than others, all
pectoral fin rays unbranched. Caudal fin with truncated pos-
terior margin. Scales ctenoid, 64 vertical rows of lateral
scales, lateral line with 26 tubular scales. Swimbladder pres-
ent. Body colour reddish, darker dorsally than ventrally.
Yellow areas on maxillary, sub-orbital region, preoperculum
and operculum. Numerous yellow spots on body sides,
small red spots on soft part of dorsal fin and also on caudal
fin. Dark blotches at base of dorsal spines and on occipital
region. Ventral area (from isthmus to anal fin) whitish to
rose, without spots. White peritoneum.
This is the fourth documented record of this migrant
from the Atlantic Ocean in the Mediterranean Sea and,
after more than a century from the first, the second capture
Pais et al.144
Fig. 2. Pontinus kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825). Department of Animal Science, University of Sassari (Italy) ichthyological collection 
(ref. number DSZ-11/04)
Table 1
Morphometric and meristic data for Pontinus kuhlii
specimen collected off the coast of Alghero; the Roman
and Arabic numbers reported for dorsal, anal, and ventral
fins indicate spines and soft rays, respectively
in Italian waters. It is the largest specimen of this species
recorded in the Mediterranean Basin and the most north-
ern capture for this region. Using the age-length relation-
ship reported for this fish by López Abellán et al. (2001)
from the Canary Islands, the newly reported specimen
seems to have been between 9 and 15 years old. This new
record of Pontinus kuhlii seems to confirm the hypothesis
of Tortonese (1987) on the expanding range of this fish in
the western Mediterranean Sea. According to Merella et
al. (1998), the scarcity of records of this species may part-
ly be due to its rarity but also, and above all, to the diffi-
culty of collecting samples from waters with non-
trawlable deep rocky bottoms.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to express their gratitude to
Giuseppe Delrio, skipper of the F/V ETNA of Alghero, for
providing the specimen and for his active collaboration.
Many thanks are also due to William N. Eschmeyer, Paolo
Merella, Hiroyuki Motomura, and two anonymous
reviewers for providing useful suggestions to improve the
manuscript.
REFERENCES
Afonso P., Porteiro F.M., Santos R.S., Barreiros J.P., Worms J.,
Wirtz P. 1999. Coastal marine fishes of São Tomé Island (Gulf of
Guinea). Arquipélago, Life and Marine Sciences (17A): 65–92.
Eschmeyer W.N. 1969. A systematic review of the scorpionfish-
es of the Atlantic Ocean (Pisces: Scorpaenidae). Occasional
Papers of the California Academy of Sciences 79: 1–130.
Eschmeyer W.N., Dempster L.J. 1990. Scorpaenidae. pp.
665–679. In: Quero J.C., Hureau J.C., Karrer C., Post A.,
Saldanha L. (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern
tropical Atlantic. Vol. 2. UNESCO, Paris.
Hureau J.C., Litvineko N.I. 1986. Scorpaenidae. pp.
1211–1229. In: Whitehead P.J.P., Bauchot M.L., Hureau J.C.,
Nielsen J., Tortonese E. (eds.) Fishes of the North-eastern
Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Vol. III. UNESCO, Paris.
Isidro E.J. 1990. Reproduction and population biology of two
commercial rockfish species from the Azores (Helicolenus
dactylopterus and Pontinus kuhlii). Abstract of the First
Congress on Oceanography and Marine Resources in the
Central-East Atlantic: 27b.
Krug H., Rosa D., Menezes G., Pinho M. 1998. Age and
growth of some demersal species of the Azores. ICES Doc
CM, 1998/O: 84.
López Abellán L.J., Santamaría M.T.G., Conesa P. 2001. Age
and growth of Pontinus kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825) in the
Canary Islands. Scientia Marina 65 (4): 259–267.
Massutí M., Massó C. 1975. La pesca selectíva en el talud con-
tinental. Bancos de pesca I: el banco de Capo palos. Boletín
del Instituto Español de Oceanografía 183: 1–26.
Merella P., Alemany F., Grau A. 1998. New data on the occur-
rence of Pontinus kuhlii (Bowdich, 1825) (Osteichthyes:
Scorpaenidae) in the Western Mediterranean. Scientia Marina
62 (1–2): 177–179.
Monteiro L.R., Isidro E.J., Lopes H.D. 1991. Mercury content
in relation to sex, size, age and growth in two scorpionfish
(Helicolenus dactylopterus and Pontinus kuhlii) from
Azorean waters. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 56: 359–367.
Sauvage H.E. 1878. Description de poissons nouveaux ou impar-
faitement connus de la collection du Muséum d’Histoire
Naturelle; famille de scorpénidés, des platycéphalidés et des
triglidés. Nouvelles Archives. Muséum National d’Histoire
Naturelle, Series 2, 1: 109–158.
Strauss R.E., Bond C.E. 1990. Taxonomic methods: morpholo-
gy. pp. 109–140. In: Schreck C.B., Moyle P.B. (eds.) Methods
for fish biology. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda.
Tortonese E. 1979. Nota sobre la presenza di Pontinus kuhlii
(Bowd.) in Mediterraneo (“Pisces Scorpaenidae”). Boletín
del Instituto Español de Oceanografía 5: 4–6.
Tortonese E. 1987. Pesci del Mediterraneo. Recenti studi intorno
alla sistematica e distribuzione. Quaderni dell’Istituto di
Idrobiologia e Acquacoltura “G. Brunelli”. Il Ventaglio, Roma.
Received: 21 November 2005
Accepted: 15 December 2005
Pontinus kuhlii from Italian waters 145
