New record of Scomberesox scombroides (Richardson, 1843) (Beloniformes: Scomberesocidae) in southwestern waters of Patagonia and an update on its geographic distribution on the Argentine continental shelf

BOVCON, N.D.; COCHIA, P.D.; RUIBAL-NÚÑEZ, J.; ROMERO, J.J.; GÓNGORA, M.E.

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ICHTHYOLOGY-ZEITSCHRIFT FUR ANGEWANDTE ICHTHYOLOGIE

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2016 vol. 32 p. 1239 - 1242

0175-8659

Scomberesox scombroides (Richardson, 1843) is found in the PacificOcean from New Zealand to the coast of Chile; and in the AtlanticOcean from Namibia to South Africa, continuing its distribution westwardbetween 30°S and 40°S (Hubbs & Wisner, 1980). This speciesbelongs to an epipelagic group of fishes that inhabit the homogeneoussurface layer of the pelagial in the open sea at all stages of its life cycle(Parin, 1968), with a distribution determined mainly by the circulationfeatures of the surface waters (Parin & Beklemishev, 1966). In theAtlantic Ocean, S. scombroides is fairly numerous and distributed in thesubtropical and moderately warm waters of its northern and southernparts wihere temperature ranges vary from 10° to 20°C (Dudnik, 1975).The distribution of S. scombroides in the Southwest Atlantic isbased on reports of isolated specimens in the open ocean off thecoasts of Uruguay and Argentina (Devincenzi, 1924; Parin, 1968).Records in the literature are scarce; in the Argentinean Sea this specieswas first recorded by López (1957) in waters off Buenos Aires province(38°S?58°W).In the present study, the finding of a single specimen of S. scombroidesconstitutes the first southernmost report in waters off thecoast of Patagonia in the Southwest Atlantic, expanding the knowledgeof this species? distribution southward.