The oilfish, Ruvettus pretiosus Cocco, 1829, is an oceanic, benthopelagic species, found world wide in tropical and warm temperate seas, generally living at depths between 100 and 700 m in the open ocean (Nakamura and Parin 1993). It lives in pairs or solitary and migrates far offshore (Anonymous 1994, Nakamura and Parin 2001, Maguire et al. 2006. It feeds on variety of fish, crustaceans, and squids. The flesh is very oily contains a strong purgative substance that may cause diarrhoea if too much is eaten (Nakamura and Parin 1993).The occurrence of the oilfish in the Mediterranean basin was recorded by Kaya and Bilecenoğlu (1999) at the coast of Turkey. The species was also successively reported from the Italian coast at the Adriatic Sea (Bettoso and Dulčić 1999). In this short note, the first record of the oilfish, R. pretiosus, in Libyan waters is reported herewith.The specimen of R. pretiosus was caught in March 2004, by a commercial bottom trawl, 7 nautical miles off the coast of Benghazi, southern Mediterranean, Libya (32°06´N; 20°03´E; Fig. 1), at the depth of approximately 65 m. The fish was frozen on board by the fisherman. Once in the laboratory, the specimen was photographed (Fig. 2) and identified based on Nakamura and Parin (1993), and is now deposited in Natural Museum of
Here we provide an updated review of both native and non-indigenous ichthyofauna occurring in the waters of Libya, one of the largest and less studied marine areas of the Mediterranean basin. With respect to the most recent information, the list of Libyan bony fishes was updated with 104 species for a total of 304 listed taxa. Out of these species, 271 are native, 6 endemic to the Mediterranean, 22 non indigenous of Lessepsian origin and 5 range expanding taxa from Gibraltar. Information on the distribution and abundance of Lessepsian fishes along the Libyan coasts was gained through both field surveys and interviews with local small-scale fishermen, which contributed in filling large information gaps in the area. This combined approach allowed to gather a more complete representation of non indigenous species along the Libyan coasts and indicated three assessment areas, corresponding to the eastern, central and western sectors of the country, which should be considered in future monitoring programs.
Abstract. In this paper, we report the first record of Bermuda sea chub, Kyphosus saltatrix (Linnaeus, 1758) caught off the coast of Benghazi, Libya. Its occurrence adds to the increasing rate of detections of this species in the south of the Mediterranean during the last decade.
The first occurrence of slender sunfish Ranzania laevis from the eastern coast of Libya (Southern Mediterranean) is reported herewith. The present finding appears to be the first record from the Libyan waters.
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