The first documented occurrence of a basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, in the Gulf of Mexico was reported off Sarasota, Florida in 1969 and was considered peculiar as the species is considered to be limited to cold water habitats. Recently, four separate sightings of individual basking sharks within the northern Gulf of Mexico have occurred indicating the species, while not common, might not be as rare in the region as once considered. All four sightings occurred in shallow coastal waters off northern Florida during March of 2010, 2011. Analyses of satellite imagery indicated that the presence of basking sharks in north-eastern Gulf of Mexico waters coincided with an intrusion of oceanic Loop Current waters into coastal waters.

The present paper reports the first record of occurrence in the Arabian Sea and extension of distribution of the reticulated moray Muraena retifera. A single specimen measuring 415 mm (total length) was collected in a trap kept at Vizhinjam Bay in the Arabian Sea off the south-west coast of India. The present record of this species from the Arabian Sea shows the extended range of occurrence of this species from the south-western Atlantic to the western Indian Ocean.

The capture of three specimens of Seriola rivoliana is reported from Mallorca (Balearic Islands). It represents the first report of the species in the western Mediterranean and the fourth and fifth for the whole Mediterranean. Morphometric and meristic measurements are provided, and the presence of this species and other Atlantic migrants of the genus Seriola in the Mediterranean are discussed.

This is the first record of an octopus (Octopus insularis) being followed by a Lutjanus species (Lutjanus jocu). The interaction was observed within the limits of the Fernando de Noronha Marine National Park, north-western Brazil and lasted for approximately 30 minutes, covering a distance of 40 metres. Similar food preferences and benthic foraging habits between the species appear to have motivated the occurrence of this behaviour.

The north-eastern region of Venezuela includes some of the most productive marine ecosystems of the country, sustaining high abundances of fisheries resources. This feature, coupled with the high diversity of coastal ecosystems, increases the interest for the development of conservation policies to prevent and/or mitigate negative environmental impacts associated with human interventions at the area. However, previous malacological assessments made in the Araya Peninsula are mainly restricted to epibiotic molluscs associated with bivalve banks. In this vein, we performed three different surveys for soft-bottom molluscs in the intertidal (using a stainless steel corer), shallow subtidal (Eckman dredge) and subtidal (Arca zebra dredge) areas of Araya Peninsula. We found 41 species including Bivalvia, Gastropoda, one Cephalopoda and one Scaphopoda, although according to sample-based rarefaction techniques there may be several more undetected species. Since there is an ongoing project aiming to construct a shipping terminal on Araya Peninsula that could adversely affect coastal marine biodiversity in the region, the knowledge about the molluscan assemblage in the area is a key requirement for designing conservation measures.

Indo-Pacific originated foraminifera species Coscinospira acicularis individuals were found among a rich peneroplid assemblage around a submarine spring in Ilıca Bay on the west coast of Karaburun Peninsula (İzmir, Turkey). This constitutes the first observation of this species in the Mediterranean. The submarine spring is located at a depth of 2.5 m and has a temperature of 28.4°C. It is possible that the special ecological conditions created by the warm waters of the spring might have enhanced the establishment of this thermophilic species. Although the Suez Canal is considered to be the major vector for the introduction of Indo-Pacific species into the Mediterranean, its abundance in Ilıca Bay and lack of observation on the eastern Mediterranean coasts suggests that shipping is the most probable mode of introduction for this species.

Many reef coral diseases have been described affecting corals in the wild, several of which have been associated with causal agents based on experimental inoculation and testing of Koch's postulates. In the aquarium industry, many coral diseases and pathologies are known from the grey literature but as yet these have not been systematically described and the relationship to known diseases in the wild is difficult to determine. There is therefore scope to aid the maintenance and husbandry of corals in aquaria by informing the field of the scientifically described wild diseases, if these can be reliably related. Conversely, since the main driver to identifying coral diseases in aquaria is to select an effective treatment, the lessons learnt by aquarists on which treatments work with particular syndromes provides invaluable evidence for determining the causal agents. Such treatments are not commonly sought by scientists working in the natural environment due the cost and potential environmental impacts of the treatments. Here we review both wild and aquarium diseases and attempt to relate the two. Many important aquarium diseases could not be reconciled to those in the wild. In one case, however, namely that of the ciliate Helicostoma sp. as a causal agent of brown jelly syndrome in aquarium corals, there may be similarities with pathogenic agents of the wild coral diseases, such as white syndrome and brown band syndrome. We propose that Helicostoma is actually a misnomer, but improved understanding of this pathogen and others could benefit both fields. Improved practices in aquarium maintenance and husbandry would also benefit natural environments by reducing the scale of wild harvest and improving the potential for coral culture, both for the aquarium industry and for rehabilitation programmes.

Living specimens of the amphi-Atlantic asteroid Hacelia superba have been collected in different areas of Gazul mud volcano in the Gulf of Cadiz, south-western Iberian Peninsula, at depths of 380–487 m. This starfish displayed low abundances (~1 ind. 2000 m−2) in beam trawl catches on the mud vulcano and adjacent soft bottoms. The absence of previous records in this area could be due to a low sampling effort on bathyal hard bottoms of the Gulf of Cadiz, especially those of dormant mud volcanoes, as well as a possible misidentification as Hacelia attenuata that also occurs in the area but is restricted to infralittoral and circalitoral bottoms.

A new species of Acrocirrus is described from shallow waters of Coconut Island in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii. Acrocirrus bansei sp. nov. is an Acrocirrus whose segment 13 (chaetiger 11) is modified and equipped with a heavy neuropodial acicular hook. This new species is most similar to A. frontifilis based on the presence of notopodial cirri, which have been, up to now, a unique feature of A. frontifilis. The species differ most notably by the absence of the notopodial cirri on the posterior chaetigers. A key to all recognized species of Acrocirrus is presented.

Nemerteans are common and often abundant constituents of intertidal fouling communities on jetties along Atlantic coastal inlets and groins of high-energy sandy beaches in South Carolina (SC) and elsewhere in the south-eastern United States, but they are typically hidden in crevices or among sessile invertebrates and algae. Monitoring the nemertean fauna of two rock groins at Pawleys Island, SC, USA resulted in the discovery of the barnacle predator Emplectonema gracile, a widespread species known to occur in the eastern North Atlantic, North Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and on the Pacific coasts of Japan and Russia, but previously reported only along the Pacific coast of North America. Several individuals, some of which were reproductive, have been collected at this new locality four times since their initial discovery in 2007, suggesting that this species is established at these sites. It is likely this species was recently introduced, perhaps via ship hulls as adults or juveniles or from ship ballast water as larvae. This finding extends the range of this nemertean to the western North Atlantic and raises the number of confirmed species along the Atlantic coast of North America to 109.

The Atlantic species of the alpheid shrimp genus Parabetaeus, P. hummelincki, is reported for the first time from São Tomé in the Gulf of Guinea, and Cozumel off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. These records extend the distribution range of P. hummelincki into the tropical eastern Atlantic and western Caribbean Sea, making this species amphi-Atlantic and the genus Parabetaeus fully pantropical.

Aspects of the distribution and ecology of ophiuroids from shallow waters off Maceió, State of Alagoas in north-eastern Brazil were characterized. The ophiuroid fauna comprised 16 species in nine genera and seven families, including three endemic species from Brazil, Ophiocnida loveni, Ophiactis brasiliensis and Amphiura kinbergi, and also four new records for the coastal reef system off north-eastern Brazil. On coral reefs 15 species were found and Ophiothrix angulata was the most abundant species. The sandstone reefs presented six species with dominance to Ophioderma appressa. Four of these species were associated with the fouling community on piers. Ophioderma appressa and Ophioderma cinerea were common in the intertidal zone on the reef edges and tide pools on coral reefs. The results demonstrated the presence of a large number of Ophiuroidea species in the shallow waters of Maceió, and expanded their distributions to the State of Alagoas and the reef systems of north-eastern Brazil.

The Lusitanian toadfish Halobatrachus didactylus is a demersal teleost and the only species of the family Batrachoididae that occurs along the continental Portuguese coast. It is a subtropical species that is more abundant in the south of Portugal, whereas along the western coast it is concentrated in discrete populations, located in estuaries and coastal recesses. The distinct features of these estuaries have revealed important changes in the respective Lusitanian toadfish populations, namely particularities in their distribution and population structure, and also in the morphology and breeding behaviour of the specimens. A survey covering 31 stations in the Tagus estuary, Portugal, and adjacent coastal waters sampled these stations over an 18 month period. This study characterized the distribution, abundance, population structure and activity of H. didactylus in this coastal zone. Toadfish showed a preferential distribution in the intermediate and lower estuarine stretches, and was more abundant in the Montijo Bay, a small bay within the Tagus estuary. Three length-groups were identified, with larger specimens more abundant in deeper areas. The specimens also revealed a preference for areas of higher water temperature, low water current and muddy substrates. Female specimens were slightly more abundant than males and type II males had a very low frequency of occurrence (3.2%). Captures of toadfish were high in spring and late summer and very low in winter.

Within an amphipod collection from Bora Bora (Polynesia) several species of Elasmopus were found: E. alalo Myers, 1986, E. hawaiensis Schellenberg, 1938, E. hooheno Barnard, 1970 and E. polynesus sp. nov. Among them was also a second member of Carangoliopsidae, known until now only by one genus with one single species: here is presented another species in a new genus, Kairos segregans gen. nov., sp. nov.

Plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) are the most abundant juvenile flatfish present on west of Ireland nursery grounds. 0-group plaice were collected from eleven sandy beach nursery areas along the west coast of Ireland by beach seining (2000–2007). In the majority of years examined, certain beaches were found to support a higher abundance of juvenile plaice, or individuals that were larger in size and exhibited good condition, suggesting that differences in habitat quality exist between beaches. Monthly mean densities of plaice ranged from 2.4 (± 2.4) to 100 (± 1.3) individuals 1000 m−2. Mean lengths of plaice ranged between 6.0 (± 1.0) and 10.1 (± 0.5) cm. No evidence of density dependent growth was detected over the eight years of the study. The length and condition of juvenile plaice also differed between hauls, indicating the existence of microhabitat effects and emphasizing the importance of selecting an appropriate spatial resolution to adequately assess an area. Similar to other locations in Europe, juvenile plaice abundances on nursery grounds were inversely related to mean spring seawater temperatures during the pelagic stage. Abundances of 0-group plaice were not related to the number of either 1- or 2-group individuals collected during bottom-trawl surveys off the Irish west coast, demonstrating the difficulties associated with developing a recruitment index for plaice.

We identified and quantified the benthic macrofauna associated with decomposing leaves of Rhizophora mangle and Laguncularia racemosa, to observe the differences in the abundance and composition of macrofauna between these mangrove species, and to examine whether the abundance and composition of organisms changed with different stations and collection times. Benthic macrofauna, mainly polychaetes and amphipods, were recorded from the fifth day after the installation of the experiment. Annelids including Oligochaeta and Polychaeta were the most numerous group. Crustacea were represented by peracarids (Amphipoda and Tanaidacea) and decapods. Of Hexapoda, only juvenile forms and pupae were present. The most abundant polychaete species was Perinereis brevicirrata, followed by Capitella cf. capitata, Heteromastus filiformis and Neanthes succinea. In one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) there were no statistical differences between the macrofauna of mangrove species, seasons, or collection times, except among collection times for R. mangle litter bags. Two-way ANOVA showed homogeneity for macrofauna abundance between the groups of collection times for both mangrove species. The richness was similar for R. mangle litter bags, and showed a significant difference for L. racemosa. Abundance and richness were also similar between the mangrove species. The colonization of detritus by benthic invertebrates followed a successional sequence during the decomposition process. This suggests that the density of these organisms and their foraging behaviour affected the decomposition rates of leaves of R. mangle and L. racemosa.

Deep-water corals are known to provide essential habitat for fish and invertebrates along the continental slope in different areas of the world, offering prey to coral predators, protection or attachment substrate to other suspension feeders. In the Mediterranean Sea the coral Isidella elongata (Esper, 1788) characterizes a facies of bathyal compact mud substrates between 500 and 1200 m depth. Based on 4 experimental surveys carried out between 1985 and 2008, we obtained quantitative data on the fauna associated with live coral stands. We show that species richness of invertebrates and crustaceans, as well as abundance and biomass of crustaceans, is higher in areas with large stands of the coral. Some commercial fishery species are also more abundant or reach larger sizes in areas with high density of the coral, particularly the red shrimps Aristeus antennatus (Risso, 1816) and Plesionika martia (A. Milne Edwards, 1883). Trawling over I. elongata facies causes direct impacts on the biological assemblages by removing the habitat-forming corals, decreasing invertebrate species diversity and negatively affecting fisheries production in the long term.