Checklist of the marine fishes from metropolitan France by Philippe BÉAREZ* (1, 8), Patrice PRUVOST (2), Éric FEUNTEUN (2, 3, 8), Samuel IGLÉSIAS (2, 4, 8), Patrice FRANCOUR (5), Romain CAUSSE (2, 8), Jeanne DE MAZIERES (6), Sandrine TERCERIE (6) & Nicolas BAILLY (7, 8) Abstract. – A list of the marine fish species occurring in the French EEZ was assembled from more than 200 references. No updated list has been published since the 19th century, although incomplete versions were avail- able in several biodiversity information systems. The list contains 729 species distributed in 185 families. It is a preliminary step for the Atlas of Marine Fishes of France that will be further elaborated within the INPN (the National Inventory of the Natural Heritage: https://inpn.mnhn.fr). Résumé. – Liste des poissons marins de France métropolitaine. Une liste des poissons marins se trouvant dans la Zone Économique Exclusive de France a été constituée à partir de plus de 200 références. Cette liste n’avait pas été mise à jour formellement depuis la fin du 19e siècle, © SFI bien que des versions incomplètes existent dans plusieurs systèmes d’information sur la biodiversité. La liste Received: 4 Jul. 2017 Accepted: 21 Nov. 2017 contient 729 espèces réparties dans 185 familles. C’est une étape préliminaire pour l’Atlas des Poissons marins Editor: G. Duhamel de France qui sera élaboré dans le cadre de l’INPN (Inventaire National du Patrimoine Naturel : https://inpn. mnhn.fr). Key words Marine fishes No recent faunistic work cov- (e.g. Quéro et al., 2003; Louisy, 2015), in which the entire Northeast Atlantic ers the fish species present only in Europe is considered (Atlantic only for the former). Mediterranean Sea the marine waters of the French However, the Convention on Biological Diversity Metropolitan France Taxonomic list Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (United Nations, 1992) that France signed on 13 June 1992, in Europe, contrary to the conti- ratified on 10 June 1994 (Loi n° 94-477 du 10 juin 19941) nental waters (Keith et al., 2011). and set up in application since 29 September 1994 (Décret Since Gervais and Boulart (1876-1877) and Moreau (1881), n° 95-140 du 6 février 19952), requests that countries iden- French ichthyologists have considered with some reasons tify the components of their biological diversity, such as spe- that a list of the marine fishes of France would present no cies and communities, important for its conservation and interest from a zoogeographic point view, and that only an sustainable use. France meets this commitment by develop- European list or an Atlantic list versus a Mediterranean list ing inventories of species, which is an objective transposed would be relevant (J.C. Hureau, pers. comm.). Hence, they in the national Environment Code. The article L411-1A were much involved in the publication of the CLOFNAM establishes a national inventory of natural heritage (������Inven- (Check-List of the Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and taire National du Patrimoine Naturel, INPN) including the the Mediterranean) (Hureau and Monod, 1973-1979), and its subsequent fauna, the FNAM (Fishes of the North-eastern 1 https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFT Atlantic and the Mediterranean) (Whitehead et al., 1984- EXT000000731610 2 1986). This remains the case for the most recent field guides https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFT EXT000000734825 (1) Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements (AASPE UMR 7209), Sorbonne Universités, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CNRS, 55 rue Buffon, CP 56, 75005 Paris, France. [[email protected]] (2) Biologie des Organismes et Écosystèmes Aquatiques (BOREA UMR 7208), Sorbonne Universités, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université de Caen Normandie, Université des Antilles, CNRS, IRD, 43 rue Cuvier, CP 26, 75005 Paris, France. [[email protected]] [[email protected]] (3) MNHN – Station Marine de Dinard, Centre de Recherche et d’Enseignement Sur les Systèmes Côtiers (CRESCO), 38 rue du Port Blanc, 35800 Dinard, France. [[email protected]] (4) MNHN – Station Marine de Concarneau, Place de la Croix, BP 225, 29182 Concarneau Cedex, France. [[email protected]] (5) Ecosystèmes Côtiers Marins et Réponses aux Stress (ECOMERS FRE 3729), Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, 28 avenue Valrose, BP 71, 06108 Nice CEDEX 2, France. [[email protected]] (6) UMS 2006 Patrimoine Naturel, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 36 rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, 75005 Paris, France. [[email protected]] [[email protected]] (7) FishBase Information and Research Group, c/o IRRI, Khush Hall, Los Baños, 4031 Laguna, Philippines. [[email protected]] (8) Société Française d’Ichtyologie, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 43 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France. * Corresponding author [[email protected]] Cybium 2017, 41(4): 351-371. Checklist of the marine fishes from metropolitan France BÉAREZ ET AL . Figure 1. – Original pictures of some interesting records from the French Mediterranean (© P. Francour). A: Didogobius splechtnai (Scan- dola, 25 m), a rare species in France. B: Gobius kolombatovici (Scandola, 50 m), a recently described species. C: Mycteroperca rubra (Scandola, 15 m), an uncommon species mainly found in Corsica. D: Fistularia commersonii: a newcomer in the Mediterranean. biological and geological diversity of metropolitan France MATERIAL AND METHODS and its overseas territories. The INPN is carried out under the MNHN scientific responsibility with multiple nature The checklist presented herein covers the marine waters stakeholders and is made available to the public through its of the French metropolitan Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) Website (inpn.mnhn.fr). off the coast bordering the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, includ- This checklist of marine fish species was developed in ing the Channel and the North Sea, and the Mediterranean the framework of the INPN as a preliminary step to estab- Sea, including Corsica (Fig. 2). This excludes the French lish and publish an Atlas of Marine Fishes of metropoli- overseas territories. tan France. Due to the importance of fishes for the fisher- All French fishes belonging to the subphylum Vertebrata ies including discards, fish farming, diving and game fish- were considered, including Myxini, Petromyzonti, Elasmo- ing, in the economy of the country, and for the ecological branchii, Holocephali and Actinopterygii (Eschmeyer et al., status assessment of marine waters for the Marine Strategy 2017). Framework Directive, a complete list of species, taking into The first objective was to establish a list of species objec- account newly recorded and described species (Fig. 1), also tively recorded in the French EEZ, that means specimens seemed to be recommended. either cited in scientific publications or present in fish collec- The following checklist is intended to provide a national tions, based on all available historical data. For this, we first reference list that will be updated with new records in the compared a primary list extracted from FishBase (Froese future. and Pauly, 2017), which included more than 560 species known to occur in the French EEZ, with the list issued from the national taxonomic register TAXREF v10.0 (Gargominy et al., 2016). The list for European waters in FishBase was mainly updated from the list of fishes in the European Regis- ter of Marine Species (Van der Land et al., 2001). 352 Cybium 2017, 41(4) BÉAREZ ET AL . Checklist of the marine fishes from metropolitan France Figure 2. – Map of the study area with delimitation of the French economic exclusive zone (EEZ). We then looked for objective records for all these species. total, more than 200 books, articles and taxonomic revisions Some uncommon or rare species known from a few speci- were consulted (the list of these references is available at mens in the Northeast Atlantic, or the Mediterranean Sea http://sfi-cybium.fr/fr/checklist-marine-fishes-metropolitan- but with no records from French EEZ, were not considered. france). To complete this drafting list, we considered the records of We followed Van der Laan et al. (2017) for family-group specimens captured in the study area and deposited in the names and the Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer et al., 2017) fish collections of theMuséum national d’Histoire naturelle, for the scientific nomenclature and classification. Within Paris and all museums in France registered in GICIM (Ges-Ges- each family, species were sorted alphabetically. tion Informatisée des Collections Ichtyologiques des Musées For each species, we provide English and French com- d’histoire naturelle de France). mon names according to the FAO, the Aquatic Science We also considered other web resources such as the and Fisheries Information System (ASFIS), or Quéro et al. GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) using a (2003) when available. Several non-commercial species, Geographical Information System (QGIS 2.10) to select all without available common names, were given a new com- the potential species observed in the EEZ area extended by mon name. 110 km (ca 470 km off the coast in total). The 188 uncovered We do not consider subspecies anymore. Subspecies that species were checked in the literature resulting in the addi- were regarded as valid in most of the latest publications were tion of 46 species to the previous list. elevated at species rank (e.g. Trachyscorpia cristulata echi- The report of the Ifremer surveys (Trenkel et al., 2009) nata is listed as Trachyscorpia echinata). In case of doubt- was also consulted, allowing us to add five more species to ful validity, subspecies were synonymised with their nomi- the checklist. We also considered regional and local check- notypical species, which was already done in the Catalog of lists as well as many useful other regional publications. In Fishes and FishBase. Cybium 2017, 41(4) 353 Checklist of the marine fishes from metropolitan France BÉAREZ ET AL . RESULTS Non-indigenous species, for which we have rare or occa- sional evidence in the French EEZ, are indicated with an We obtained a consolidated list of 729 marine fish spe- asterisc.