Iris Publishers- Journal of Oceanography & Marine Biology| Occurrence of Mature Female of Etmopterus Spinax (Chondrichthyes: Etmopteridae) in the Syrian Coast (Eastern Mediterranean)

Authored by Adib Saad

Velvet Belly Lantern shark, Etmopterus spinax (Linnaeus, 1758) is recorded for second time in the Syrian coast. A mature female of E. spinax measured 354mm total length, and weighed 208.3g, caught at depth about 300m. the specimen was in stage 3, had two ovaries; contained 9 oocytes measured between 10-5mm in diameter. The width of left and right oviducal gland measured; 8mm and 7mm, respectively. It had left and right functional uterus, white color measured; 77mm and 75mm in length; 11mm and 10 mm in width, respectively. The velvet belly Etmopterus spinax (Linnaeus, 1758) is a smallsized deep-water squaliform. Although E. spinax is known to be more commonly caught in the western Mediterranean Basin [1,2]; mainly off the Tunisian and Sicilian coasts [3,4], the species is reported in both Mediterranean Basins in waters ranging between 150-200 m and 400 m, and probably deeper [5]. It has been recorded at depths as low as 2,200 m in the Ionian Sea [6]. The species is reported in the Aegean Sea [7], in Turkish waters [8], off the Egyptian coast [9], and in the Levant Basin [10,11]. Conversely, the species is not recorded off the Lebanese coast [12]. This paper is reporting second occurrence of E. spinax from Syrian marine waters and providing for the first time the principal biometric and meristic characters, and some remarks on biology of this species in the eastern Mediterranean. On 19 October 2017, mature female of E. spinax (Linnaeus, 1758) was caught in Syrian marine waters by trawl as far as the city of Jableh (between 35° 26´ N, 35° 43´ E) at a depth of about 300 m, on sandy and muddy bottoms (Figure 1). All measurements were recorded to the nearest 1 mm and weighted to the nearest 0.1 gram. The description of the specimens in the present paper follows Bello et al. [13] and Capapé & Ali [11. Stage of maturity was determined following the scales for viviparous Elasmobranchs proposed by Anonymous.

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