A new record of an individual of the invasive sea squirt, Styela clava, is reported from Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland. This represents a 1.54° latitudinal extension (168 km) from the previous northern-most record in UK waters. Diver surveys of hard substrates in the immediate area, part of local biosecurity protocols, did not find any additional individuals. Possible transport vectors, likelihood of an established reproductively active population, and implications to local biodiversity are discussed.
In the Persian Gulf, Azooxanthellate Scleractinia remain understudied compared to their symbiotic counterparts. Here, we report the presence of azooxanthellate coral Truncatoflabellum mortenseni (Cairns & Zibrowius, 1997) for the first time in Iranian deep waters. This species was found on soft sediments at depths of 83 and 101 m. Given this report, the distribution range of T. mortenseni, previously known to exist only in the Indonesian-Philippine regions, is now expanded to the Persian Gulf.
The Longman’s beaked whale (Indopacetus pacificus) is one of the rarest cetaceans worldwide. Since it was first described as its own species in 1926, they have been observed alive at sea on several occasions, and less than 20 strandings have been reported worldwide to date. Thus, basic information regarding this species, such as the maximum size of adult individuals or body length at birth, remains unknown. In this study, the external appearance and DNA analysis of a female Longman’s beaked whale stranded on Miyako Island, Okinawa, Japan, are reported. The external appearance of the specimen matched the features of the Longman’s beaked whale presented in previous studies. The mitochondrial DNA control-region sequences obtained from the specimen also matched the reference sequences of the species deposited in GenBank. Based on these features, the specimen was confirmed as a Longman’s beaked whale. The specimen was estimated to be neonate because of its body length (235 cm) and the clear several fetal folds observed on its body surface. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a confirmed new born neonate of Longman’s beaked whale in the world.
This paper presents the first record of Naucrates ductor ( Linnaeus 1758) from Syrian waters. One specimen (300 mm TL, 294.29 g TW) was caught by purse-seine nets at about 60 m depth from Lattakia coast, on 25 September 2020. This record represents the first of this cosmopolitan species that entered the Syrian waters (Eastern Mediterranean).
Data from 369 sightings of mobulid rays from St Helena Island, Cardno and Bonaparte seamounts in the South Atlantic are summarised. 50 % (183) of sightings were observed from a boat, 48 % (176) of sightings were encountered in water, of which 95 % (168) were whilst actively scuba diving. 2 % (10) of mobulid ray sightings were observed from land. Sightings data indicate that the Chilean devil ray Mobula tarapacana (Philippi, 1892) is a frequent visitor to St Helena and is present all year. We document the first photographic evidence of the presence of oceanic manta, Mobula birostris (Walbaum, 1792) at St Helena. Two solitary individuals were photographed off the north coast of St Helena in June 2018. These sightings confirm previous unverified reports on the species occurrence and extend the known distribution range of M. birostris in the open South Atlantic Ocean to 16°S.
