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First Record of the Southern Ocean Sunfish, Mola Ramsayi, in The

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First Record of the Southern Ocean Sunfish, Mola Ramsayi, in The Marine Biodiversity Records, page 1 of 4. # Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 2013 doi:10.1017/S1755267213000377; Vol. 00; e0; 2013 Published online 1 2 First record of the southern ocean sunfish, 3 4 Mola ramsayi, in the Gala´pagos Marine 5 6 7 Reserve 8 1 2 3 4 5 9 tierney t. thys , jonathan whitney , alex hearn , kevin weng , cesar pen~aherrera , 6 7 8 2 10 Q1 l. jawad ,j.alfaro-shigueto , j.c. mangel and stephen a. karl 11 1 2 Ocean Sunfish Research and Tagging Program, 25517 Hacienda Place, Suite Cm Carmel, CA, 93923, Hawai‘i Institute of Marine 12 3 Biology, Unviersity of Hawai‘i, Ma¯noa, PO Box 1346, Ka¯ne‘ohe, HI, 96744, Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, 13 4 1088 Academic Surge, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616-5270, Oceanography Department, 14 5 Pelagic Fisheries Research Program, University of Hawai‘i, Ma¯noa, Honolulu, HI 96822, Charles Darwin Foundation, Puerto Ayora, 15 6 Santa Cruz Island, Gala´pagos, Ecuador, Fish Biodiversity Expert and Consultant, Marine Science and Fisheries Centre, Ministry of 16 7 Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth, PO Box 427, Postal Code 100 Muscat, Oman, Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of 17 8 Q2 Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, TR10 9EZ, UK, 18 19 20 Ocean sunfish from the genus Mola, family Molidae, are the world’s heaviest bony fish, reaching 2500 kg, primarily on a diet 21 of gelatinous zooplankton. Three molid species are reported to occur in the Gala´pagos archipelago: Mola mola, Masturus 22 lanceolatus and Ranzania laevis. To date, no genetic analysis of any molid has been conducted in Gala´pagos. In October 23 2011, tissue samples were obtained from nine sunfish at Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela Island, genetically analysed and 24 found to be M. ramsayi—the southern sunfish. This marks the first record of M. ramsayi in Gala´pagos waters. 25 26 27 Keywords: Molidae, Tetradontiformes, distribution expansion 28 29 Submitted 24 February 2013; accepted 11 April 2013 30 31 32 33 34 INTRODUCTION (Schmidt, 1921). Despite their range and reproductive 35 output, surprisingly little is known about the family’s 36 The family Molidae has had a long taxonomic history and cur- natural history and global population status. 37 rently, three genera with four species are recognized (Parenti, Through a voluntary reporting system, researchers, tour 38 2003). These include Masturus lanceolatus (Lie´nard, 1840) guide operators and fishermen have identified regions where 39 also called the short-tailed mola; Ranzania laevis (Pennant, populations of ocean sunfish are reliably found worldwide 40 1776) known as the slender mola; Mola mola (Linnaeus, (www.oceansunfish.org). Some of these regions include the 41 1758) the common mola and; Mola ramsayi (Giglioli, 1883) waters of California’s central and southern coast, South 42 the southern mola. Recent genetic work suggests there may Africa’s Capetown, Bali’s Nusa Lembongan, Japan’s 43 be another clade of Mola spp. in Japanese waters (Yoshita Kamogawa, Taiwan’s Hua Lien, Spain’s Malaga, Italy’s 44 et al., 2009; Yamanoue et al., 2010). Camogli and Ecuador’s Gala´pagos Islands—the latter being 45 Noted for their truncated anatomy, molas lack caudal the focus of this work. 46 bones, ribs and pelvic fins (Tyler, 1980). With fused backbones Three species from three molid genera have been reported 47 and fewer vertebral centra than other fish groups, molas in Gala´pagos: Mola mola and Ranzania laevis by Grove & 48 propel themselves primarily with long median fins (Tyler, Lavenberg (1997) and McCosker & Rosenblatt (2010) and 49 1980). Despite these morphological abbreviations, some most recently Masturus lanceolatus by Todd & Grove 50 members reach impressive sizes with the common mola, (2010). Mola lanceolatus sightings were confirmed via video 51 Mola mola, claiming title to the world’s heaviest bony fish identification, however M. mola and R. laevis await confir- 52 (approximately 2500 kg) (Carwardine, 1995; Roach, 2003). mation as no collected specimens can be located from these 53 The common name, ocean sunfish, derives from the molids’ islands. According to Grove & Lavenberg (1997) one speci- 54 habit of basking at the sea surface. men of M. mola was collected from the Archipelago in 1898 55 Ocean sunfishes boast a wide distribution and can be found by Edmund Heller (unpublished field notes) but its where- 56 in all tropical and temperate ocean basins. They are also abouts are unknown. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, 57 renowned for extremely high fecundity, with a single female no R. laevis have been collected from the islands. 58 capable of producing an estimated 300 million eggs Detailed knowledge about all marine fauna in this World 59 Heritage Site is vital for proper management of its protected 60 resources. The Gala´pagos Marine Reserve was created in 2 61 Corresponding author: 1998, and covers an area of over 138,000 km around the 62 T.T. Thys Gala´pagos Islands, where fishing is limited to approximately 63 Email: [email protected] 1000 locally-registered small-scale fishers, of which less than 1 2 tierney t. thys et al. 64 half are active (Castrejøn Mendoza, 2011). Most fishing Genetic analysis 65 activity is centred around diving for lobster and sea cucum- ′ 66 bers, although hook and line fisheries for both demersal and The 5 end of the mtDNA control region was amplified in two 67 pelagic species is increasing (Hearn, 2008; Castrejøn reactions using three primers. One primer, Manchor-F, 68 Mendoza, 2011). Ocean sunfish are not targeted by fishers matches a conserved region in both Mola mola and Mola 69 and have not been reported as by-catch according to the ramsayi. Two other primers, MmolaR and MramR, are M. 70 Charles Darwin Foundation and Gala´pagos National Park mola and M. ramsayi species-specific primers, respectively. 71 Service Fisheries Database. The reserve therefore acts as a With these primers, M. ramsayi produces a 359 bp fragment 72 refuge for wide-ranging pelagic species such as these, which and M. mola produces a 250 bp fragment and the species 73 are vulnerable to fishing gear outside protected waters. can be easily determined via agarose gel electrophoresis (i.e. 74 Results reported here form part of an ongoing study to deter- presence or absence of the appropriate sized fragment). 75 mine the movement patterns of a range of highly migratory Species identifications were confirmed by sequencing the frag- 76 species in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. ment from two individuals and comparing the sequences to 77 previously identified Mola spp. (Bass et al., 2005). 78 79 MATERIALS AND METHODS 80 RESULTS 81 Site selection 82 All of the Mola sp. from the Gala´pagos produced polymerase 83 Repeated sightings of ocean sunfish have been recorded since chain reaction fragments using the MramR forward primer 84 1999, at Punta Vicente Roca (PVR) at the north-western tip but not with the MmolR primer, consistent with them being 85 of Isabela Island by National Geographic/Lindblad staff Mola ramsayi. 86 and guests (Thys, personal communication). These reports 87 guided the selection of PVR as a study site. 88 DISCUSSION 89 Tissue sampling 90 Our work marks the first record of Mola ramsayi, the southern 91 Between 26 and 28 September 2011, nine ocean sunfish were sunfish, in the Gala´pagos Islands. Mola ramsayi can be con- 92 sampled at PVR by a team of three snorkellers that captured fused with Mola mola in the field (Bass et al., 2005); 93 the sunfish at the sea surface. Sizes ranged from 98–165 cm however, morphological differences do exist and have been 94 total length. A complete meristic analysis was not completed. described by Fraser-Brunner (1951). Mola mola have 95 All fish had a fin clipping (1 cm2) taken from a pectoral fin rougher skin and a reduced band of denticles running 96 and were preserved in 90% EtOH. Of the nine fish sampled, between their dorsal and anal fins along the pseudotail 97 two were also double-tagged with fast-loc GPS tags (Wildlife known as a clavus (Figure 1). This band is not present in M. 98 Computers, Redmond, WA) and acoustic tags (Vemco, ramsayi.InM. ramsayi, the clavus region is supported by 16 99 Halifax, Nova Scotia). Three fish were tagged with only acous- fin rays, 12 of which bear ossicles while in M. mola the 100 tic tags. Handling of the live animals was kept to a minimum clavus has 12 fin rays, eight of which bear ossicles. Mola ram- 101 and no animals were sacrificed or collected. sayi’s ossicles are situated close together and broader than the 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 Fig. 1 - B/W online 125 Fig. 1. (A) Mola ramsayi from Punta Vicente Roca. Scale bar ¼ 50 cm; total length, 144 cm (photograph: Alex Hearn); (B) Mola mola from California waters. 126 Arrow points to band of reduced denticles (photograph: Mike Johnson). mola ramsayi in the gala’ pagos marine reserve 3 127 spaces between them while those of M. mola are widely separ- M. mola and M. ramsayi. Exact numbers of individuals are 128 ated and less broad than the spaces between them. A full list of not yet available. By-catch is likely sizeable given that the 129 meristic differences can be found in Matsuura (2002). Future number of hooks and nets used by small-scale fisheries in 130 work will include the collection and analysis of additional Peru, an estimated 80 million hooks and 100 000 km of 131 samples to deduce from which global population the fishing nets, equates to one-third of the fishing effort reported 132 Gaa´lpagos molas stem coupled with a complete meristic by the entire global swordfish longline fishery (Lewison et al., 133 analysis.
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