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received: 2019-11-27                  DOI 10.19233/ASHN.2019.22
ON A OCCURRENCE OF GADELLA MARALDI (OSTEICHTHYES: 
GADIFORMES: MORIDAE) ON THE TUNISIAN COAST 
(CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN SEA)
Sihem RAFRAFI-NOUIRA 
Unité de Recherches Exploitation des Milieux aquatiques, Institut Supérieur de Pêche et d’Aquaculture de Bizerte, Université de 
Carthage, BP 15, 7080 Menzel Jemil, Tunisia
Christian REYNAUD & Christian CAPAPÉ
Laboratoire d’Ichtyologie, case 104, Université de Montpellier, 34095 Montpellier cedex 5, France 
e-mail: capape@univ-montp2.fr
ABSTRACT
A specimen of Gadella maraldi (Risso, 1810) measuring 215 mm in total length, 192 mm in standard length and 
weighing 96.56 g was caught off the northern Tunisian coast. This capture constitutes the second Tunisian record of 
the species and confirms its occurrence in the area where it was previously considered as doubtful. The specimen 
is described, including morphological measurements, meristic counts and colour. Due to a lack of records, the real 
status of the species in Tunisian waters remains questionable. 
Key words: description, morphometric measurements, meristic counts, distribution, deep waters
RITROVAMENTO DI GADELLA MARALDI (OSTEICHTHYES: GADIFORMES: MORIDAE) 
LUNGO LA COSTA TUNISINA (MEDITERRANEO CENTRALE)
SINTESI
Un esemplare di Gadella maraldi (Risso, 1810) di 215 mm di lunghezza totale, 192 mm di lunghezza standard 
e 96,56 g di peso è stato catturato al largo della costa tunisina settentrionale. Questa cattura costituisce il secondo 
ritrovamento tunisino della specie e conferma la sua presenza nell’area in cui era precedentemente considerata 
dubbia. Nell’articolo viene descritto l’esemplare, comprese le misurazioni morfologiche, i conteggi meristici ed il 
colore. A causa della mancanza di dati, lo stato reale della specie nelle acque tunisine rimane discutibile.
Parole chiave: descrizione, misure morfometriche, conteggi meristici, distribuzione, acque profonde
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INTRODUCTION
Gadella maraldi (Risso, 1810) is known in the eastern 
Atlantic from the Porcupine Bank, an area of the Irish 
shelf, located approximately 200 kilometres west of 
Ireland, to the northern continental shelf of Spain and 
the southern coast of Portugal (Ruiz-Pico et al., 2012). 
South of the Strait of Gibraltar, the species is reported 
from Madeira, the Josephine Bank, the Azores, the Great 
Meteor Bank and the Canary Islands (Bañon et al., 2010).
G. maraldi occurs in the western Mediterranean 
Basin, specifically, in the Adriatic Sea (Cohen, 1986). 
Eastward, the species is found in Turkish waters (Kaba-
sakal, 1998), as far as the Levant Basin (Golani, 2005). 
Following Cohen (1986), it was reported throughout the 
Maghreb shore with the exclusion of the Tunisian coast. 
Conversely, it was reported in the latter area by Cohen 
et al. (1990), probably based on the single record made 
by Maurin (1962) at the level of Resgui Bank. However, 
such occurrence of G. garaldi remained questionable, 
due to the fact that no specimen had been available to 
date for confirmation.
A decade of routine monitoring in Tunisian waters 
and assistance from local fishermen aware of the fishing 
grounds have yielded a specimen of G. maraldi caught 
during a commercial trawling survey occurring off the 
northern Tunisian coast. The present paper provides a 
short description of the specimen, including morpho-
metric measurements and meristic counts, and some 
comments about the real status of the species in the area.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
On 30 September 2019, a specimen of G. maraldi 
was collected by commercial trawl at a depth of 230 m, 
off Bizerte, northern Tunisian coast, at 37° 33’ 04.72” N 
and 10° 06’ 07.62” E (Fig. 1), on sandy-rocky bottom, 
together with labrid species, parrot seaperch Callanthias 
ruber (Rafinesque, 1810) and Phycis phycis (Linnaeus, 
1766). It was measured to the nearest millimetre and 
weighed to the nearest gram (Fig. 2). The morphometric 
measurements and meristic counts follow Cohen (1986), 
Cohen et al. (1990), Kabasakal (1998) and Ruiz-Pico et 
al. (2012), and are summarized in Table 1. The standard 
length is abbreviated as SL and total length as TL. The 
number of gill rakers were counted on the first branchial 
arch, and the number of vertebrae from a X-ray photo-
graph.
The specimen was fixed in 10% buffered formal-
dehyde, preserved in 75% ethanol and deposited in 
the Ichthyological Collection of the Institut Supérieur 
d’Acquaculture et de Pêche of Bizerte (ISPAB), Tunisia, 
under catalogue number ISPAB-Gad-mar-01.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The Tunisian specimen of Gadella maraldi was iden-
tified based on the combination of the following main 
morphological characters: body elongate, slightly com-
pressed, with a large head (4.3 times in SL), and tapering 
posteriorly; chin absent, mouth oblique, jaw in a narrow 
row 2-3 teeth, some teeth larger, pointed and strongly 
Fig. 2: The specimen of Gadella maraldi (Ref. ISPAB-
Gad-mar-01) captured in northern Tunisian waters, 
scale bar = 40 mm. Insert A. Head of the specimen, the 
arrow pointing at the teeth, scale bar = 10 mm. Insert B. 
A gill raker of the first branchial arc removed from the 
same specimen, scale bar = 5 mm.
Sl. 2: Primerek vrste Gadella maraldi (Ref. ISPAB-Gad-
mar-01) ujet v severno tunizijskih vodah, merilo = 40 
mm. Predel A. Glava primerka; puščica označuje zobe, 
merilo = 10 mm. B. Odstranjen škržni izrastek prvega 
škržnega loka, merilo = 40 mm.
Fig. 1: Map of northern Tunisian waters, with the black 
triangle indicating the Resgui Bank and the black star 
indicating the capture site of the present specimen of 
Gadella maraldi.
Sl. 1: Zemljevid vod ob severni Tuniziji s črnim trikot-
nikom, ki označuje Resgui Bank in črno zvezdico, ki 
kaže na mesto ulova primerka vrste Gadella maraldi.
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curved at distal end, none on vomer and palatines; large 
eye; two dorsal fins, the first slightly higher than the sec-
ond; anal fin not indented, originating behind the origin 
of the first dorsal fin; caudal fin rounded at distal end; 
pectoral fins extending beyond the origin of pelvic fin; 
filamentous ray of pelvic fin extending slightly beyond 
the anal fin origin; body covered with small cycloid 
scales, including the head, except for cheeks and lips; 
light organ present as a small naked patch on the belly; 
colour brownish-black, pectoral bluish-black, oral cav-
ity pale.
The general morphology, morphometric measure-
ments, meristic counts and colour are in total agreement 
with previous descriptions of G. maraldi by Maul (1953), 
Aguiar & Pereira (1982), Cohen (1986), Cohen et al. 
(1990), Kabasakal (1998) and Ruiz-Pico et al. (2012). 
Therefore, this capture of G. maraldi constitutes the 
first well-documented record of the species from the 
Tunisian coast and confirms the occurrence of a species 
that should be included in the local ichthyofauna. This 
second record of G. maraldi extends the range of the 
species eastwards, along the Maghreb shore.
The present specimen measured 215 mm TL, 192 
mm SL and its total body weight was 96.56 g. Following 
Cohen (1986) and Cohen et al. (1990), G. maraldi grow 
to a maximum length of 300 mm, and the first sexual 
maturity occurs at the size of 150 mm TL. The studied 
specimen was an adult female and some oocytes were 
observed in the ovaries. G. maraldi is a carnivorous spe-
cies feeding on small benthic invertebrate and teleost 
species (Kabasakal, 1998), but the stomach of this speci-
men was empty.
Aguiar & Pereira (1982) noted that G. maraldi was 
locally abundant in the areas where it was reported. 
Conversely, records of the species were generally based 
on few specimens, 2-4 maximum, in Kabasakal (1998), 
Papaconstantinou (1990) and Ruiz-Pico et al. (2012), 
who considered it very rare. Cohen et al. (1990) noted 
there was no separate statistics concerning the species, 
which was probably counted among by-catch in fisher-
ies, and added that it was only sporadically found in fish 
markets, concluding that the species did not display com-
mercial importance. Additionally, G. maraldi inhabits 
deep-sea waters, which are, in general, poorly exploited 
by commercial fishing gears. This could explain why 
only two records were reported from Tunisian waters 
during a seventy-year research period. That being so, the 
occurrence of a viable population in the area remains 
questionable, although such pattern cannot be totally 
ruled out, as the scarce information prevents any conclu-
sion regarding the real status of the species in the area.
Tab. 1: Absolute and relative biometric and meristic 
data recorded in the specimen of Gadella maraldi (Ref. 
ISPAB-Gad-mar-01) caught in northern Tunisian waters.
Tab. 1: Absolutni in relativni biometrični in meristični 
podatki, zabeleženi na primerku Gadella maraldi (Ref. 
ISPAB-Gad-mar-01), ki je bil ujet v vodah severne 
Tunizije.
Reference ISPAB-Gad-mar-01
Morphometric measurements mm %SL
Total length 215 111.98
Standard length (SL) 192 100.00
Pre-anal length 62 32.29
Predorsal fin length 60 31.25
Prepectoral fin length 57 29.69
First dorsal fin length 14 7.07
Second dorsal fin length 103 53.68
Anal fin length 120 62.55
Pectoral fin length 7 3.64
Pelvic fin length 2 1.00
Head length 45 23.51
Eye diameter 13 6.79
Body depth 37 19.46
Preorbitary length 13 6.52
Interorbital length 12 5.96
Length of upper jaw 27 13.98
Length of lower jaw 24 12.71
Length of right pelvic fin 18 9.30
Length of left pelvic fin 28 14.33
Meristic counts
First dorsal fin rays 11
Second dorsal fin rays 55
Anal fin rays 60
Pectoral soft fin rays 24
Pelvic fin soft rays 7
Number of scales of the lateral 
line
96
Number of scale rows between 
the dorsal and the lateral line 
10
Number of gill rakers 12
Number of vertebrae 54
Total body weight in gram 97.56
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O POJAVLJANJU VRSTE GADELLA MARALDI (OSTEICHTHYES: GADIFORMES: 
MORIDAE) OB TUNIZIJSKI OBALI (OSREDNJE SREDOZEMSKO MORJE)
Sihem RAFRAFI-NOUIRA 
Unité de Recherches Exploitation des Milieux aquatiques, Institut Supérieur de Pêche et d’Aquaculture de Bizerte, Université de 
Carthage, BP 15, 7080 Menzel Jemil, Tunisia
Christian REYNAUD & Christian CAPAPÉ
Laboratoire d’Ichtyologie, case 104, Université de Montpellier, 34095 Montpellier cedex 5, France 
e-mail: capape@univ-montp2.fr
POVZETEK
Primerek vrste Gadella maraldi (Risso, 1810), ki je meril 215 mm v dolžino in tehtal 96.56 g, je bil ujet ob severni 
tunizijski obali. Gre za drugi zapis o najdbi te vrste za Tunizijo, ki potrjuje njeno pojavljanje tudi na območju, za ka-
terega so pred tem dvomili. Avtorji opisujejo primerek, navajajo morfometrične meritve in meristična štetja ter barvni 
vzorec. Zaradi pomanjkanja podatkov o tej vrsti je njen dejanski status v tunizijskih vodah še vedno nepojasnjen. 
Ključne besede: opis, morfometrične meritve, meristična štetja, razširjenost, globokomorsko okolje