OCCURRENCE OF THE NORWAY LOBSTER, NEPHROPS NORVEGICUS (L., 1758) (DECAPODA, NEPHROPIDAE), NEAR THE CANARY ISLANDS

BY

JACINTO BARQUÍN, ALBERTO BRITO and JESÚS M. FALCÓN Departamento de Biologia Animal, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de La Laguna, E-30206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

ABSTRACT

The Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, is recorded for the first time from waters of the Canary Islands. This occurrence extends the southern limit of this species.

RESUMEN

Se cita por primera vez a la cigala, Nephrops norvegicus, en aguas de las Islas Canarias. Esta referencia amplía el límite meridional de la especie.

INTRODUCTION

The family Nephropidae Dana, 1852 is represented in the Canary Islands by two species: the European lobster, Homarus gammarus (Linnaeus, 1758), and Nephropsis atlantica Norman, 1882 (cf. González-Pérez, 1995). The presence of the former seemed doubtful, since it was only mentioned by Santaella (unpubl.), based on oral reports by fishermen; however, given the unmistakable morphology of this species, the quotation may be taken as certain. N. atlantica, a deep-water species, was cited by Bouvier (1917: 22) from near Lanzarote, Canary Islands. No new catches have since then been reported from the area. The habitat of the Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus (Linnaeus, 1758), a species of great economic importance in the northern Atlantic and in the Mediter- ranean Sea, ranges from Iceland and northern Norway to the Mediterranean Sea and the Morocco coast (Figueiredo & Thomas, 1967; Holthuis, 1981; Sarda & Fernández, 1981). The most southern record of this species to date is Casablanca, Morocco (33°30'N) (Holthuis, 1981; Cervantes & Goni, 1985). For several years, fishermen from La Graciosa, a small island situated to the north of Lanzarote (Canary Islands) have assured the incidental capture of 345

the Norway lobster, while fishing the European hake Merluccius merluccius (Linnaeus, 1758), with bottom long-line and also with fish and shrimp traps, in the vicinity of the island and over the Dacia and Conception banks. Nevertheless, its occurrence in Canarian waters has been unnoticed by the scientific community, being unmarked in the recent revision of the decapods of the Canaries (Gonzalez- P6rez, 1995). In the present paper, the occurrence of the Norway lobster in the Canary Islands is confirmed, and data about its distribution are given, extending the known southern limit of this species considerably.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

In May 1996, hake-fishermen from La Graciosa sent us two specimens of the Norway lobster (one of them frozen and the other one still alive) (fig. 1). These two animals were captured at a depth of 400 m, on muddy bottoms next to the north-west insular slope of Lanzarote. Once in the laboratory, they were identified, sexed, measured, and weighed, and they are currently stored in the Crustacea collection of the Department of Animal Biology (Marine Sciences Section) of the University of La Laguna (ref. CRNE-1/96). The distribution map (fig. 2) was based on information from La Graciosa fishermen, who use GPS as a system of positioning and echosounding.

Fig. 1. Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus (L., 1758), captured in Canarian waters (specimen 1 of table I).