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

Cemal Turan,Servet A. Doğdu,Mevlüt Gürlek,Serpil Karan,Nuri Başusta,Ali Uyan

doi:10.28978/nesciences.468995

Abstract

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.

Highlights

Fishes are the most primitive members of the subphylum Craniata, constituting more than half of the living vertebrate species
The main objectives of this study is to provide for the first time a checklist of the as nonindigenous bony and cartilaginous fishes found in the Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara and Black Sea coasts of Turkey
Non-indigenous marine fish in Turkish marine waters comprises 101 species of which Actinopterygii classes is represented with 89 species, and Elasmobranchii is represented with 11 species and Hyperoartia is represented with 1 species (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Fishes are the most primitive members of the subphylum Craniata, constituting more than half of the living vertebrate species. Among the entire faunal assemblages, fishes are one of the most intensely studied groups, with nearly 650 species recorded throughout the Mediterranean basin (Quignard & Tomasini, 2000; Coll et al, 2010). The completion of the High Aswan Dam in 1965-67 has retained important changes in the Levantine basin which favored the settlement and spread of lessepsian/Erythrean fish and invertebrates in the Mediterranean basin (Halim et al, 1995; Halim, 2004) that appears to be in accelerating process (Turan et al 2016). Tortonese (1964) estimated the Indo-Pacific immigrant fish species to be about 30 for a Mediterranean total of about 550. The check list of Zenetos et al (2010) comprises 92 nonindigenous species of the Indo-Pacific origin in the Mediterranean

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Conclusion