Maturity of the pufferfish Lagocephalus sceleratus in the southeastern Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

The present study assesses maturity and reproductive dynamics of pufferfish Lagocephalus sceleratus (Gmelin, 1789) off Cyprus (southeastern Mediterranean Sea), in relation to regional differences in oceanographic conditions, habitat characteristics and fishing activity. In addition, the allometric pattern of gonadal growth was studied to validate the use of the gonadosomatic index (GSI) in assessments of the reproductive cycle. To do so, 4743 pufferfish were sampled between May and October 2010 so as to cover the reproductive period of the population, which peaks from late spring to middle summer. Analysis of GSI data showed a clear differentiation between 2 pufferfish populations residing in the southwestern (SWA) and the south-east (SEA) coastal areas of Cyprus. Specifically, the SWA population was mainly dominated by immature individuals and exhibited a more delayed and narrow reproductive period. Moreover, generalized linear model analysis (GLM) showed that the SWA population exhibited significantly smaller size at 50% maturity, L 50 (41.9 cm), compared to the SEA population (48.8 cm). These differences in reproductive seasonality and L 50 were not found to be related to differences in sea surface temperature (SST) between the 2 regions, whilst mature individuals almost entirely disappeared from both areas outside the reproductive period. The latter could not be attributed to overfishing of the larger size classes since the fishery was not shown to be selective to pufferfish size. These results indicate that L. sceleratus may be a spawning migratory species that visits Cyprus southeastern coasts to reproduce and then migrates to other warm areas of the eastern Levantine basin.

Reproductive biology of Lagocephalus scelertaus in Mediterranean and Red Seas, Egypt

“…Also Rousou et al (2014) reported that, the reproductive season of L. sceleratus off Cyprus was found to extend from late spring to middle summer.…”

“…3 and 4). The Mediterranean population attains L population, may be related to the favorable conditions, food availability in such area of sub-tropical to temperate zones especially this species itself well along the different coasts of Mediterranean basin according to their ability as a member of open water hunters (Kalogirou, 2013;Farrag, 2014 andRousou 2014). …”

Evaluation of tetrodotoxins in puffer fish caught along the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Toxin profile of Lagocephalus sceleratus

“…L. sceleratus was first reported in the Mediterranean Sea in February 2003 at Gökova Bay (southern Aegean Sea, Turkey) (Akyol et al, 2005), in November 2004 at Jaffa along the Israeli coast (Golani and Levy, 2005), and in July 2005 in the Cretan Sea, Greece (Kasapidis et al, 2007). Since then, L. sceleratus has been recorded with increasing frequency in Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Algeria, and Turkey and is considered as one of the fastest expanding Lessepsian invaders (Acar et al, 2017;Deidun et al, 2015;Kara et al, 2015;Katikou et al, 2009;Kosker et al, 2016;Rodriguez et al, 2012;Rousou et al, 2014). In Spain, one individual of L. sceleratus was captured in July 2014 in Denia (Alicante, Western Mediterranean) (Katsanevakis et al, 2014) and is the object of the present publication.…”

A lionfish (Pterois miles) invasion has begun in the Mediterranean Sea

“…It eats economically important cephalopods Sepia officinalis and Octopus vulgaris (Cuvier 1797) and is classed as a fisheries pest (Kalogirou 2013). Some countries have initiated invasive fish eradication programmes, for example the Cypriot authorities have been compensating fishermen for their pufferfish catches during the reproductive season, resulting in massive removals of pufferfish biomass from the eastern Mediterranean (Rousou et al 2014).…”