Original scientific article UDC 597.5:591.13(262.3 Tržaški zaliv) Received: 2006-12-01 ON THE OCCURRENCE OF RIBBON FISH TRACHIPTERUS TRACHYPTERUS (GMELIN, 1789) IN THE GULF OF TRIESTE (NORTHERN ADRIATIC SEA) Diego BORME & Fabio VOLTOLINA National institute for Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS, Department of Biological Oceanography, I-34014 Trieste, A. Piccard 54, Italy E-mail: dborme@ogs.trieste.it ABSTRACT Five adult specimens of ribbon fish Trachipterus trachypterus were registered in the Gulf of Trieste during the summer of 2006. The species is widely distributed, but the records in this area are rare. The morphometric and mer-istic characteristics and the stomach contents of four specimens are described. Comparison with other reports of rare species in the same area and evolution of the thermohaline properties in the Gulf of Trieste are also considered. Key words: Trachipterus trachypterus, stomach contents, rare species, Gulf of Trieste, Adriatic Sea SEGNALAZIONI SULLA COMPARSA DEL PESCE NASTRO TRACHIPTERUS TRACHYPTERUS (GMELIN, 1 789) NEL GOLFO DI TRIESTE (ADRIATICO SETTENTRIONALE) SINTESI Cinque esemplari adulti di pesce nastro Trachipterus trachypterus sono stati ritrovati nel Golfo di Trieste durante l'estate 2006. La specie presenta un'ampia distribuzione geografica ma le segnalazioni in queste acque sono rare. Vengono riportate le caratteristiche morfometriche e meristiche e vengono descritti i contenuti stomacali di quattro esemplari. I ritrovamenti vengono confrontati con altre segnalazioni di specie rare nella stessa area e vengono evi-denziate alcune relazioni con le caratteristiche termoaline del Golfo di Trieste. Parole chiave: Trachipterus trachypterus, contenuti stomacali, specie rare, Golfo di Trieste, Mare Adriático INTRODUCTION The ribbon fish Trachipterus trachypterus (Gmelin, 1789) is a meso-pelagic species, resident primarily between 200 and 1000 m. It inhabits tropical and subtropical waters of every ocean, occurring in central Pacific Ocean, Japan, New Zealand, south-eastern coasts of Africa and Mediterranean Sea (except eastern Black Sea) (Fischer et al., 1987; Jardas, 1996). Belon (1553) initially named the species Falx venetorum. In the Mediterranean, common names for this species exist in France ('poisson ruban'), Greece ('kordella'), Israel ('trakhipterus'), Italy ('pesce nastro'), Slovenia ('kosica'), Croatia ('mac srebr-njak'), Malta ('fjamma'), Monaco ('pisciu ruban'), Spain ('lista') and Turkey ('kag it') (Bini, 1969), but no dialectal names are known in the Adriatic Sea (Soljan, 1975). It is occasionally caught by purse seines, trawling nets and long-lines (Fischer et al., 1987). The species is sporadically recorded in all Italian seas, but only in the Messina Strait it occurs 1-10 times per year (Costa, 1991). Between 1875 and 1980, only 46 adult individuals were recorded in the Adriatic (Jardas, 1980). More frequently, ribbon fishes are seen dead, floating on the surface or washed to the beach either by waves or tides. Their presence at the surface is probably not normal (Bini, 1969). The data on biology and ecology of this species are very scarce. The aim of this paper is to provide new additional data on its occurrence in the Gulf of Trieste and on its distribution and biology in the Adriatic Sea. MATERIAL AND METHODS Between July and September 2006, five specimens of ribbon fish Trachipterus trachypetrus (Trachipteridae) were recorded in the Gulf of Trieste. The first specimen was recorded on July 31, at a depth of 1.5 m, inside the little harbour of "Filtri di Aur-isina", in front of the Department of Biological Oceanography of the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS) of Trieste (Fig. 1). In August, two adult specimens were caught off Izola (Slovenia): the first at the beginning of August by a pelagic trawling net, the second on August 10 by a monofilament gillnet, set about 2 NM from the coast (V. Ziza, pers. comm.). In September, two other adult specimens were registered: one on September 2, caught by hands at a depth of 0.5 m outside of the same little harbour where the first specimen was found; the other along the seaside of Barcola (Trieste) (N. Bressi, pers. comm.). The two adult specimens found at Aurisina were alive, moving slowly with one side turned obliquely. A juvenile specimen of T. trachypterus, found on 15 April 2004 in the coastal waters of Piran (Slovenia), was used to compare the morphology between adult and juvenile stages. The specimen was dead and injured, lack- Fig. 1: Locations of T. trachypterus records in the Gulf of Trieste: A (05/08/03, Barcola), B (15/04/04, Piran), C (31/07/06, Aurisina Filtri), D ("/08/06, off Izola), E (10/08/06, 2 NM off Izola), F (02/09/06, Aurisina Filtri), G ("/09/06, Barcola). Sl. 1: Lokacije v Tržaškem zalivu, na katerih je bila zabeležena kosica T. trachypterus: A (05/08/03, Barkov-lje), B (15/04/04, Piran), C (31/07/06, Nabrežina Filtri), D ("/08/06, Izola), E (10/08/06, 2 NM stran od Izole), F (02/09/06, Nabrežina Filtri), G ("/09/06, Barkovlje). ing the caudal part. It was preserved in 10% buffered formalin at the laboratory of the Marine Biological Station Piran (National Institute of Biology). In the laboratory, meristic (Tab. 1) and morphometric (Tab. 2) characteristics were described and the fishes accurately identified according to Bini (1969), Soljan (1975), Fischer et al. (1987), Costa (1991) and Jardas (1996). Length measurements were taken to the nearest 1 mm and weight measurements to the nearest 0.1 g. The stomach of each fish was dissected under a stereo-microscope and the whole content was washed out on a petri dish and examined individually (at 70X magnification). Each prey item was counted and determined at the lowest possible taxonomical level. Comparisons with description of other specimens found in the Mediterranean were made. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Morphology This species possesses all the characteristics of fish living at very great depths. The body is elongated and laterally compressed. Largest height is immediately behind the short head. Colour is silvery, with 3 (sometimes 4) dark blotches over lateral line and 1 in ventral position, near the head. Fins are red-orange, with a delicate connective membrane (Fig. 2). Dorsal fin is long, as the whole length of the back, with the first few rays elongated in juveniles, but often reduced in adults. Anal fin is absent. Pectoral fins are short and inserted horizontally. Ventral fins are inserted on the ventral profile, with 3-9 very elongated rays in juveniles, but small or absent in adults. Caudal fin consists of two fascicles of rays, the upper elongated and directed upwards, the lower rudimental and sub-horizontal. Frontal space is black. Eyes are big and circular (Fig. 3). Mouth is small and very pro-trusible. Teeth are subtile and projecting backwards. The skin is scaleless, but uniformly covered by little bony tubercles (only in adults). The lateral line is formed by bony plates, each with a spine projecting ahead (more evident in the caudal region). The general shape of body and fins are greatly modified during maturation of the individuals. The body in juveniles is higher, but shorter, and the anterior profile of the head is more steep (Fig. 4). The eyes are located in the centre of the head in juveniles, while in adults they are situated near the dorsal profile. In adults, some characters are drastically reduced. In young specimens, the first 5-6 dorsal fin rays and the ventral fin rays are extraordinarily long and provided with appendages. At the length of 10 cm, rays of the dorsal and ventral fins become shorter and the caudal fin become similar to a fan. In adults, the swimming bladder is heavily reduced and the teeth are less abundant. Generally, they hold their body in vertical position, with head upwards and undulating their long dorsal fin. The juveniles use the elongated fins (dorsal, ventral and pectoral) like sails, drifting passively in the current. Meristic characters (Tab. 1) of the analysed specimens are in agreement with data from specimens of the Adriatic Sea (Jardas, 1980) and other Italian seas (Bini, 1969). The differences recorded in the number of ventral fin rays and teeth in the upper jaw are due to the different life stage of the individuals analysed; in adults, in fact, these characters tend to be reduced. The species reaches 300 cm (Tortonese, 1970; Soljan, 1975), but the biggest specimen recorded for the Adriatic Sea was 160 cm long; it was caught in Bakar Bay (near Rijeka, Croatia) in 1951 (Jardas, 1980). Total length of the 33 individuals measured in the Adriatic Sea from 1888 to 1979 ranged between 13.7 and 160.0 cm, and 9 of them were more than 100 cm long (Jardas, 1980). Fig. 2: Specimen of T. trachypterus caught on 31 July 2006 in front of the Institute for Biological Oceanography (OGS) of Trieste (30 cm barr is visible right down). Sl. 2: Osebek vrste T. trachypterus, ujet 31. julija 2006 pred tržaškim Inštitutom za biološko oceanografijo (OGS) (30 cm merilo v desnem spodnjem kotu). Tab. 1: Meristic characters in each of the specimens recorded recently in the Gulf of Trieste compared with those recorded by other authors (* referred to juveniles; n.d. not determinable). Tab. 1: Meristični podatki osebkov, nedavno zabeleženih v Tržaškem zalivu, primerjani s podatki drugih avtorjev (*mladostni osebki; n.d. nedeterminirani). Meristic characters Specimen Author 15/04/04 31/07/06 10/08/06 02/09/06 Bini (1969) Jardas (1980) dorsal fin rays D n.d. 160 180 165 125-187 126-181 ventral fin rays V 5 3 0 0 8* 5-7* pectoral fin rays P 10 10 11 10 11 9-12 caudal fin rays (upper lobe) n.d. 8 9 7 6-8 7-8 caudal fin rays (inferior lobe) n.d. 6 5 6 3-6 spines along lateral line n.d. 97 94 91 right lower ¡aw (dental) teeth 5* 5 5 5 4-5* left lower ¡aw (dental) teeth 5* 4 4 5 4-5* vomer teeth 1 * 1 1 1 some* right upper ¡aw (praemaxillary) teeth 7* 7 5 3 8-10* left upper ¡aw (praemaxillary) teeth 4* 5 4 2 8-10* gillrakers (1st branchial arch) 12* 13 13 13 Tab. 2: Morphometric characters and organ weights in the specimens recorded in the Gulf of Trieste (n.d. not determinable). Tab. 2: Morfometrični podatki in teža organov osebkov, zabeleženih v Tržaškem zalivu (n.d. nedeterminirani). Date 15/04/04 31/07/06 10/08/06 02/09/06 Preservation formol frozen formol frozen Morphometric characters (mm) total length (TL) n.d. 998 1033 1205 standard length (SL) n.d. 878 925 1067 preorbital length 5 26 23 39 eye horizontal diameter 9 32 35 36 head length (C) 28 97 98 111 head height 37 107 105 124 interorbital space 6 21 22 24 predorsal length (LPD) 7 51 55 68 prepectoral length (LPP) 29 93 99 108 preventral length (LPV) 33 105 111 118 maximal body height 39 108 108 126 preanal length (LPA) 110 400 405 500 caudal peduncle height n.d. 10 11 12 dorsal fin rays maximal length 29 55 68 76 dorsal fin length n.d. 835 882 990 pectoral fin length 7 26 33 42 caudal fin length (upper lobe) n.d. 120 125 137 caudal fin length (lower lobe) n.d. 0.8 1.2 2 ventral fin length 46 0 0 0 sex n.d. male male male Weight (g) total weight n.d. 495.2 477.7 1036.3 gutted weight n.d. 411.7 406.8 956.0 heart n.d. 0.6 0.8 0.8 stomach 1.4 11.6 22.5 27.1 empty stomach 0.6 7.3 20.9 21.1 liver n.d. 2.7 6.8 10.3 piloric ceaca n.d. 4.7 8.0 10.3 intestine n.d. 1.6 2.6 5.6 gonads n.d. 0.9 1.1 1.6 Diet Data about the diet of this species are scarce. Bini (1969) and Tortonese (1970) consider the diet exclusively carnivore, including cephalopods, shrimps, pelagic and benthic fishes, or, rather, mid-water fishes (Dulcic & Li-pej, 1997) and bathypelagic fishes (Costa, 1991). In the stomachs of ribbon fishes caught in the Gulf of Trieste, both animal and vegetal organisms were found (Tab. 3). Those of adult specimens contained rests of teleost fishes, fragments of algae, marine phanerogams and earth-plants (Fig. 5). The stomach of the juvenile individual presented a wider diet spectrum, comprising numerous Copepods. Probably the vegetal fragments of earth-plants were accidentally ingested. Jardas (1980) analysed the stomach content of 4 specimens and in 2 of them found Cymodocea nodosa, algal fragments of Dilophus fasciela, Cystoseira fimbri-ata, leaves of Pinus sp. and pieces of other earth-plants. He also found remains of polychaetes and other smaller shrimps, Enteromorpha intestinalis, Coccinella septem-punctata, the cigarette filter and pieces of various plastic objects. The diversity of ingested objects indicates that the species is a voracious predator, eating virtually everything when missing its natural prey. According to the same author, this also indicates that the collected individuals were active for a certain period in the littoral region, though the area does not represent their natural environment. Tab. 3: List of prey items found in the stomachs of T. trachypterus from the Gulf of Trieste. Tab. 3: Seznam enot plena, najdenega v želodcih kosice T. trachypterus iz Tržaškega zaliva. Prey items Specimens group species 15/04/04 31/07/06 02/09/06 10/08/06 Diatoms Coscinodiscus sp. 1 Dinoflagellates Protoperidinium sp. 1 Algae Cladophora dalmatica fragments Rhizoclonium riparium fragments Marine Phanerogams Cymodocea nodosa leaves and rhizome leave Earth-plants Cupressus cupressus leaves Betula pendula 1 seed Cladocerans Evadne nordmanni 1 Copepods Acartia clausi 1 Temora longicornis 8 Temora stylifera 2 Diaixis pigmoea 1 Calanus helgolandicus 1 Calanidae 9 Clauso-Paracalanidae 19 Oithona plumifera 23 Oithona nana 1 Corycaeus sp. 5 Euterpina acutifrons 5 Microsetella rosea 2 Copepoda nauplius 1 Isopods Isopoda 3 Decapods Alpheidae 1 Bony fishes Engraulis encrasicolus 1 Teleostea 3 Parasites On the skin of the specimen caught on 31 July 2006, 32 individuals of Paragnathia formica (Isopoda) and 2 parasitic Copepods of the genus Caligus (Cyclopoida) were counted. Reproduction Dulcic (1996) found, for the first time in the Adriatic, a larval specimen of T. trachypterus at Stoncica near Vis Island (southern Adriatic). Bini (1969) reports that eggs and larvae of this species are found in the plankton of Messina Strait from November to May, suggesting that the spawning period extends to the whole year. On the beaches of the same strait, juvenile and adult specimens are generally recorded in March, April and May (Costa, 1991). Jardas (1980) observed that its higher frequency along the eastern Adriatic coasts during spring and summer months is correlated with the spawning period. All the adult specimens analysed in this work were males. Fig. 3: Detail of head in adult T. trachypterus. Sl. 3: Detajl glave odrasle kosice T. trachypterus. Tab. 4: Date, location, length and reference of records of T. trachypterus in the Gulf of Trieste. Tab. 4: Datum, lokacija, dolžina in vir kosic T. trachypterus, zabeleženih v Tržaškem zalivu. Date Locality Length (cm) Reference 1888 Gulf of Trieste adult Marcuzzi (1972) 1888 Gulf of Trieste juvenile Marcuzzi (1972) Grignano 108 Jardas (1980) Grignano 83 Jardas (1980) Gulf of Trieste 67 Jardas (1980) Gulf of Trieste 75 Jardas (1980) 02/1992 Ronek cape 110 Dulcic & Lipej (1997) 1992 Grignano 114 Bussani (1992) 05/08/2003 Barcola 105 R. Auriemma (pers. comm.) 15/04/2004 Piran -25 this work 31/07/2006 Aurisina 100 this work -01/08/2006 Gulf of Trieste adult V. Ziza (pers. comm.) 10/08/2006 2 NM off Izola 103 this work 02/09/2006 Aurisina 120 this work 09/2006 Barcola 110 N. Bressi (pers. comm.) Comparison with other records In the Mediterranean Sea, the occurrence of the species is rarely documented, although it is occasionally caught in the Aegean Sea (Papakonstantinou, 1988; Bi-lecenoglu et al., 2002), Messina Strait (Costa, 1991) and the western Mediterranean (Tortonese, 1958; Fabre, 1967). Since the recorded specimens of T. trachypterus have been caught with different fishing gears, its rarity does not seem to be connected with the use of inappropriate fishing tecniques. This fact supports the belief that this species is truly rare. In the Adriatic Sea, T. trachypterus was for the first time reported by Kolombatovic (1881), but Faber (1883) described this species as generic, although rare, reporting it for Trieste, Venice and Dalmatia. Jardas (1980) reported on the capture of 46 specimens from the Adriatic Sea since 1875. Six of those individuals were no doubt from the Gulf of Trieste: 2 were recorded in 1888 and 4 between 1939 and 1951 (Tab. 4). There are no documented records for the 1951-1991 and 1993-2002 periods. During the summer of 2006, i.e. in the same period when the records presented in this work were made, an adult specimen, about 1 meter long, was washed up by tide at Brussa (Caorle, Italy) on July 9 (A. Colla, pers. comm.). On 4 August 2006, another specimen of about 40 cm was caught at Dugi otok (central-eastern Adriatic) in the shallow waters of a little harbour by a fisherman using a harpoon (N. Burba, pers. comm.). Previous records had not been so frequent: on 15 April 2004, the juvenile specimen analysed in this work was registered at Piran, whereas on 5 August 2003, an adult specimen, 105 cm long, was found at the Barcola seaside (Trieste) (R. Auriemma, pers. comm.). In 1992, however, records of T. trachypterus were relatively common in the middle and northern parts of the Adriatic. In that year, sport-fishermen caught a 114 cm long specimen in the vicinity of Grignano harbour the Gulf of Trieste (Bussani, 1992). According to Jardas & Pallaoro (1996), the occurrence of T. trachypterus in central and northern regions of the Adriatic might be associated with some special climatological and oceanographical conditions in 1992 and 1994, such as inputs of intermediate waters (50-100 m) from the eastern Mediterranean into the Adriatic, which influenced the increase in salinity and temperature (Buljan, 1953; Jardas, 1980; Vucetic, 1982). Pallaoro (1988) stated that the Adriatic ingressions in the 1986-87 period caused more rare species, such as Cen-tracanthus cirrus, Aulopus filamenosus, Pseudocharanx dentex, Synodus saurus, Centrolophus niger, to appear in the central Adriatic region. The unusual abundance of such rarely found fish species compared to the non-ingression periods gives indication of their interdependence. Dulcic et al. (1999) found that most of new occurrences of fish species were recorded in the 1985-1987 and 1990-1995 periods, when 11 subtropical and tropical fishes were recorded for the first time. Also in the Gulf of Trieste, which is the northernmost part of the Mediterranean Sea, thermohaline anomalies, occurring in spring-summer periods, have been related to advective flow of high salinity waters from the South into the basin (Celio et al., 2002). For this region, the specific ichthyological list accounts as new species Plectorhincus mediterraneus (Lipej et al., 1996), Epi-nephelus marginatus (Dulcic & Lipej, 1997), Cory-phaena hippurus (Dulcic & Lipej, 1997), Sphyraena sphyraena (Ziza, 1997), Ruvettus pretiosus (Bettoso & Dulcic, 1999) and Brama brama (G. Barbieri, pers. comm.). It is interesting that in a less recent paper, Bus- Fig. 4: Juvenile specimen found on 15 April 2004 off Piran. Sl. 4: Mladostni osebek, najden 15. aprila 2004 v bližini Pirana. sani & Feoli (1976) reported some other species rare for the Adriatic (especially for its northern part), such as Centrolophus niger, Trachinotus ovatus, Naucrates ductor and Polyprion americanus. It is difficult to accurately interpret long-term observations of coastal water thermohaline properties, considering that signals of interannual variations in seasonal temperature and salinity are strongly influenced by many agents, such as the shallowness of the water column, the freshwater inputs from rivers, the tidal amplitude and the action of wind (Orlic et al., 1992). However, all changes in marine life may also suggest the changing of ocean conditions (Tonn, 1990), since marine flora and fauna integrate medium-term changes in ambient conditions (Soule & Keppel, 1988). The status of the ribbon fish needs to be evaluated on a continuous basis, as it is becoming increasingly apparent that uncommon species can be essential indicators of environmental changes (Swabby & Potts, 1990). Fig. 5: Stomach content of the specimen caught on 31 July 2006. Sl. 5: Struktura hrane v želodcu osebka, ujetega 31. julija 2006. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank all those who provided them with specimens of the species dealt with in the present work: Lovrenc Lipej of the Marine Biology Station Piran, Valter Žiža of the Piran Aquarium, Nicola Bressi and Andrea Colla of the Natural History Museum Trieste, Rocco Auriemma of the University of Trieste, and Andrea Benussi, Sonia Bello, Marco Duiz, Elio Sirza and Egidio Cini of the ACEGAS recreational club of Trieste. The authors are also grateful to Annarita Di Pascoli for her help in algae determination. O POJAVLJANJU KOSICE TRACHiPTERUS TRACHYPTERUS (GMELIN, 1 789) V TRŽAŠKEM ZALIVU (SEVERNI JADRAN) Diego BORME & Fabio VOLTOLiNA National institute for Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS, Department of Biological Oceanography, I-34014 Trieste, A. Piccard 54, Italy E-mail: dborme@ogs.trieste.it POVZETEK V poletnih mesecih 2006 je bilo v Tržaškem zalivu zabeleženih pet odraslih osebkov kosice Trachipterus tra-chypterus. Čeprav je vrsta razširjena v večjem delu tega območja, so podatki o njej redki. Avtorja opisujeta morfo-metrične in meristične značilnosti vrste in strukturo hrane v želodcih štirih osebkov. Napravljena je tudi primerjava z drugimi podatki o redkih vrstah v istem območju in opisan razvoj termohalinskih značilnosti v Tržaškem zalivu. Ključne besede: Trachipterus trachypterus, struktura hrane v želodcih, redka vrsta, Tržaški zaliv, Jadransko morje REFERENCES Bettoso, N. & J. 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