Occurrence of the Blue Button Porpita porpita (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Iskenderun Bay, Northeastern Mediterranean Coast of Turkey

Abstract

The blue button Porpita porpita (Linnaeus, 1758) was observed for the first time in July 2018 in the Iskenderun Bay, Northeastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. This is the third record of this species for Turkish marine waters, while it is the first record for Iskenderun bay. The presence of P. porpita in the northeastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey shows its extension from northwestern Mediterranean coast (Antalya Bay) of Turkey.

Porpita porpita(Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) expands its range: First record in the southern Mediterranean coasts

“…Mediterranean records of Porpita porpita , in red the new record of the current study and in black previous records from the literature. 1: The Catalan coasts of Spain (Guerrero et al, 2016), 2: Corsica (France) (Kousteni et al, 2019), 3: Central Tyrrhenian coasts of Italy (Furfaro et al, 2017), 4 to 8: The Ionian and Adriatic Apulian coasts of Italy (Gravili, 2006; Gravili et al, 2008, 2015; Lillo et al, 2019), 9: Malta (Deidun et al, 2015), 10–11: Turkey (Gürlek et al, 2020; Saygın, 2017) and 12: Syria (Mamish et al, 2019)…”

“…P. pacifica (a synonym of P. porpita) colonies also appeared in larger numbers along the coastline of Japan (Oiso et al, 2005) where the first case of contact dermatitis caused by this species was recorded. (Guerrero et al, 2016), 2: Corsica (France) (Kousteni et al, 2019), 3: Central Tyrrhenian coasts of Italy (Furfaro et al, 2017), 4 to 8: The Ionian and Adriatic Apulian coasts of Italy (Gravili, 2006;Gravili et al, 2008Gravili et al, , 2015Lillo et al, 2019), 9: Malta (Deidun et al, 2015), 10-11: Turkey (Gürlek et al, 2020;Saygın, 2017) and 12: Syria (Mamish et al, 2019)…”

“…Commonly known as the blue button, P. porpita is the most familiar member of the family Porpitidae, within the class Hydrozoa (Calder, 2010). Every apparent individual is actually a colony of hydrozoan polyps, each specialised for a different function such as feeding, defence or reproduction (Gürlek et al, 2020). Throughout the period of presence on the water surface, colonies usually bear small adult medusa having a size of approximately 2 mm diameter and 2.5 mm high (Gravili et al, 2015).…”

Long-term Monitoring of Carnivorous Gelatinous Macrozooplankton in the Area of Dubrovnik-Neretva County (Croatia)

“…Furthermore, annual semi-quantitative abundance was calculated from the monthly datasets using the following equation previously used by [62]: The blue button P. porpita is a fl oating colony of hydroids inhabiting mainly the superfi cial part of the water column as neuston. The species has been found in the Atlantic Ocean, Indo-Pacifi c Ocean and Mediterranean Sea [15,38], including the Adriatic Sea [35,69]. There are only three known records of mass occurrences of this species: stranding of large numbers of individuals along the coast of Odisha (India) during the summer season [70], high abundance (1-2 individuals/m2) along the southeast coast of Bangladesh in March/April 2014 [73], and along the northern coastal region of the Sea of Japan [46].…”

Uncommon Mass Beaching of Porpita porpita (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu, India

“…(Sahu et al, 2020;Ravichandran et al, 2014;ITIS, 2021;Ozlem, 2017). They are free-floating marine organisms consisting of a colony of hydroids, that live mostly in the pelagic zone and are propelled by sea currents and wind (Ravichandran et al, 2014;Gurlek et al, 2020). P. porpita possesses tentacles that are vivid blue colour and a shiny brown gas-filled flat disc (Ozlem, 2017).…”