Range expansion of the common lionfish Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828) in the Mediterranean Sea: an unwanted new guest for Italian waters

Ernesto Azzurro,Vincenzo Di Martino,Bessi Stancanelli,Michel Bariche

doi:10.3391/bir.2017.6.2.01

Abstract

Range expansion of the common lionfish Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828) in the Mediterranean Sea: an unwanted new guest for Italian waters

Highlights

The Indo-Pacific lionfishes Pterois volitans (Linnaeus, 1758) and P. miles (Bennett, 1828) represent a welldocumented example of highly damaging invasive species spreading rapidly worldwide
In the Mediterranean Sea, a lionfish was first detected in July 1991 by Golani and Sonin (1992), who identified it as Pterois miles
The sighting was made by two of the authors (BS and VDM) whilst performing a scientific dive aimed at monitoring the spread of invasive algae (Project: “Spread of Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla in the Western and Northern Mediterranean basin” CNR/ISAFoM UOS of Catania)

Summary

Introduction

The Indo-Pacific lionfishes Pterois volitans (Linnaeus, 1758) and P. miles (Bennett, 1828) represent a welldocumented example of highly damaging invasive species spreading rapidly worldwide. In the last two decades, they rapidly spread through the Western Atlantic and Caribbean Sea (Schofield 2009), becoming a major problem for coastal environments and represent one of the world’s top conservation issues (Sutherland et al 2010). In the Mediterranean Sea, a lionfish was first detected in July 1991 by Golani and Sonin (1992), who identified it as Pterois miles. Despite the conspicuous appearance of this fish, no further observations were made until 2012, when two new Pterois miles specimens, confirmed by molecular analyses, were recorded (Bariche et al 2013). New specimens were detected in the easternmost sectors of the Levant Basin. We summarize the chronology of its spread and the information associated with lionfish sightings by reviewing available literature

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Conclusion