Gaidropsarus granti (Regan, 1903)

Borg, Joseph A., Evans, Julian, Knittweis, Leyla & Schembri, Patrick J., 2022, New and interesting records of marine fishes (Actinopterygii) from the Maltese Islands (central Mediterranean), Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 52 (3), pp. 215-221 : 215

Gaidropsarus granti (Regan, 1903)

Fig. 5

Diagnosis.

Dorsal part of head reddish-brown with cream reticulations. Rest of body with three longitudinal brown bands (one dorsal and one dorsolateral band on either side) separated by thin, undulating cream stripe. Dorsolateral brown bands interrupted by thin cream stripes in the posterior region, breaking up into spots towards the caudal peduncle. Lower surfaces including head, ventral part of flank, and belly, all cream-coloured.

Remarks.

This species has recently been recorded from Malta by Tsagarakis et al. (2021), based on a single individual caught off west Gozo (coordinates: 36.00°N, 014.10°E) at a depth of 290 m. Bello (2018) gives another record as " W of Malta (ANDALORO et al. 2011) " but this online article (Anonymous, not dated) does not include details of the record apart from a point on a map. From this map, it appears that the fish originated from waters some 75 km west of the island of Gozo. Two individuals of G. granti (Fig. 4 ) were recorded from the presently reported ROV surveys, one in 2015 and one in 2016, which antedate the record by Tsagarakis et al. (2021). Both individuals occurred on a muddy bottom with rocky outcrops, one at a depth of 748 m and the other at 871 m. Froese and Pauly (2022) give the typical depth range for G. granti as 20-250 m but there are many Mediterranean records of this fish from deeper waters (e.g., Orsi-Relini and Relini 2014; Bello 2018; Spinelli and Castriota 2019; Tsagarakis et al. 2021). However, the depth of the presently reported findings (748 m and 871 m, Table 3 ) far exceeds almost all previous Mediterranean depth reports, and the 871 m depth is substantially greater than the deepest known record for the species, from the Galician Bank (Atlantic), where this species occurred at 823 m ( Bañón et al. 2002). Gaidropsarus granti is native to the eastern and central Atlantic and its first record (cf. Bello 2018) from the Mediterranean in 1995 ( Zachariou-Mamalinga 1999) sparked a debate as to whether it is an overlooked native or an Atlantic species that had recently expanded its range. The species’ status in the Mediterranean is best given as cryptogenic, although the prevailing opinion is that it is an Atlantic range-expanding species ( Orsi-Relini and Relini 2014; Bello 2018).

The present note adds knowledge to the fish faunal diversity of the Maltese Islands: Thorogobius ephippiatus and Chlopsis bicolor are new records for Malta; Grammonus ater has not yet been reported from Malta in the scientific literature; and Gaidropsarus granti has only been reported once from close to the Maltese islands in the published literature. In addition, the present findings include the deepest records of G. granti and C. bicolor , and the second deepest record of T. ephippiatus for the entire Mediterranean Sea.

Figures

Figure 4. Image grab from ROV footage collected on 20 June 2016 at a depth of 10 m (36 ° 01.106 ′ N, 014 ° 14.730 ′ E) showing an individual of Grammonus ater. Image: Enrique Talledo / OCEANA © LIFE BaĦAR for N 2 K.

Figure 5. Image grab from ROV footage collected on 23 June 2015 at a depth of 871 m (35 ° 52.880 ′ N, 014 ° 07.351 ′ E) showing an individual of Gaidropsarus granti. Image: OCEANA © LIFE BaĦAR for N 2 K.