Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T17:35:40.772Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Amputation of a major propulsor would not be an insuperable obstacle for survivorship of the slender sunfish Ranzania laevis (Molidae: Tetraodontiformes)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2014

Evgeny V. Romanov ,
Alan Sharp  and
Pascal Bach
Evgeny V. Romanov*
Affiliation:
CAP RUN–ARDA, Magasin n°10–Port Ouest, 97420 Le Port, Île de la Réunion, France
Alan Sharp
Affiliation:
CAP RUN–ARDA, Magasin n°10–Port Ouest, 97420 Le Port, Île de la Réunion, France
Pascal Bach
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMR 212 ‘Ecosystèmes Marins Exploités’, Centre de Recherche Halieutique Méditerranéenne et Tropicale, Avenue Jean Monnet, BP 171, 34203 Sète, France
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: E.V. Romanov, CAP RUN–ARDA, Magasin n°10– Port Ouest, 97420 Le Port, Île de la Réunion, France email: evgeny.romanov@ird.fr
Get access

Abstract

A record of a healthy specimen of slender sunfish Ranzania laevis with an amputated anal fin and healed scars is described from the south-western Indian Ocean. This is the first evidence of nektonic pelagic fish survival in spite of the ablation of a major locomotory organ and the first indication of non-lethal predation on adult slender sunfish.

Keywords

predationsurvivallocomotory organamputation
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 7 , 2014 , e20
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bach, P., Gaertner, D., Menkes, C., Romanov, E. and Travassos, P. (2009) Effects of the gear deployment strategy and current shear on pelagic longline shoaling. Fisheries Research 95, 55–64. doi: 10.1016/j.fishres.2008.07.009.Google Scholar
Bach, P., Romanov, E. and Gaertner, D. (2012) COPAL (Comportement de la Palangre). Longline behaviour modelling software. Version 2.7. Marseille: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement.Google Scholar
Barnard, K.H. (1935) Notes on South African marine fishes. Annals of the South African Museum 30, 645–658.Google Scholar
Cartamil, D.P. and Lowe, C.G. (2004) Diel movement patterns of ocean sunfish Mola mola off southern California. Marine Ecology Progress Series 266, 245–253.Google Scholar
Dewar, H., Thys, T., Teo, S.L.H., Farwell, C., Sullivan, J.O., Tobayama, T., Soichi, M., Nakatsubo, T., Kondo, Y., Okada, Y., Lindsay, D.J., Hays, G.C., Walli, A., Weng, K., Streelman, J.T. and Karl, S.A. (2010) Satellite tracking the world's largest jelly predator, the ocean sunfish, Mola mola, in the Western Pacific. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 393, 32–42. doi: 10.1016/j.jembe.2010.06.023.Google Scholar
Ebenezer, I.P. and Joel, J.J. (1984) On a large sunfish Ranzania typus from southwest coast. Indian Journal of Fisheries 31, 360–361.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, B., Meekan, M. and Richards, A. (2006) Shark attacks on a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. Bulletin of Marine Science 78, 397–402.Google Scholar
Fourmanoir, P. (1969) Contenus stomacaux d'Alepisaurus (poissons) dans le sud-ouest Pacifique. Cahiers ORSTOM, Série Océanographie 7, 51–60.Google Scholar
Fraser-Brunner, A. (1951) The ocean sunfishes (family Molidae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Zoology 1, 89–121.Google Scholar
Graham, J.B., Rosenblatt, R.H. and Gibson, D.L. (1986) Morphology and possible swimming mode of a yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares, lacking one pectoral fin. Fishery Bulletin 84, 463–469.Google Scholar
Hamer, D.J., Childerhouse, S.J. and Gales, N.J. (2012) Odontocete by-catch and depredation in longline fisheries: a review of available literature and of potential solutions. Marine Mammal Science 28, E345–E374. doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2011.00544.x.Google Scholar
Heemstra, P.C. (1986) Molidae. In Smith, M.M. and Heemstra, P.C. (eds) Smiths' sea fishes. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo: Springer-Verlag, pp. 907–908.Google Scholar
Heithaus, M.R., Wirsing, A.J., Thomson, J.A. and Burkholder, D.A. (2008) A review of lethal and non-lethal effects of predators on adult marine turtles. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 356, 43–51. doi: 10.1016/j.jembe.2007.12.013.Google Scholar
Hutchins, J.B. (2001) Molas (ocean sunfishes). In Carpenter, K.E. and Niem, V.H. (eds) The living marine resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 6. Bony fishes part 4 (Labridae to Latimeriidae), estuarine crocodiles, sea turtles, sea snakes and marine mammals. FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, pp. 3381–4218.Google Scholar
Iversen, E.S. and Yoshida, H.O. (1957) Notes on the biology of the wahoo in the Line Islands. Pacific Science 11, 370–379.Google Scholar
Jardas, I. and Knežević, B. (1983) A contribution to the knowledge of the Adriatic ichthyofauna—Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776) (Plectognathi, Molidae)/Prilog poznavanju ihtiofaune Jadranskog mora Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776) (Plectognathi, Molidae). Institut za Oceanografiju i Ribarstvo–Split SFR Jugoslavija, Bilješke—Notes 51, 1–8.Google Scholar
Jawad, L., Al-Mamary, J. and Al-Kharusi, L. (2010) The slender sunfish, Ranzania laevis (Actinopterygii: Tetraodontiformes: Molidae), in the coastal waters of the Oman Sea. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 40, 105–108. doi: 10.3750/AIP2010.40.2.02.Google Scholar
Jawad, L.A., Hussein, S.A. and Bulbil, F. (2011) Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776) (Tetraodontiformes, Molidae): a rare fish in marine waters of Iraq. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 27, 1116–1118. doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0426.2010.01609.x.Google Scholar
Johnson, G.D. and Britz, R. (2005) Leis' conundrum: homology of the clavus of the ocean sunfishes. 2. Ontogeny of the median fins and axial skeleton of Ranzania laevis (Teleostei, Tetraodontiformes, Molidae). Journal of Morphology 266, 11–21. doi: 10.1002/jmor.10242.Google Scholar
Lowry, D., De Castro, A.L.F., Mara, K., Whitenack, L.B., Delius, B., Burgess, G.H. and Motta, P. (2009) Determining shark size from forensic analysis of bite damage. Marine Biology 156, 2483–2492. doi: 10.1007/s00227-009-1273-3.Google Scholar
Matthews, F.D., Damkaer, D.M., Knapp, L.W. and Collette, B.B. (1977) Food of western North Atlantic tunas (Thunnus) and lancetfishes (Alepisaurus). NOAA Technical Report NMFS SSRF, Washington, DC: NOAA 706, 1–19.Google Scholar
Parin, N.V., Nesis, K.N. and Vinogradov, M.E. (1969) Materialy po pitaniyu alepizavrov (Alepisaurus) v Indiiskom okeane (Data on feeding of lancetfishes (Alepisaurus) in the Indian Ocean). Journal of Ichthyology (Voprosy Ikhtiologii) 9, 526–538. [In Russian.]Google Scholar
Pennant, T. (1776) Class IV. Oblong diodon. British Zoology 3, 129–130. Warrington: Printed by William Eyres, for Benjamin White, at Horace's Heap, Fleet Street, London.Google Scholar
Ramamurthy, N., Vinod, K. and Gopakumar, G. (2012) A note on the slender sunfish, Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776) landed at Chinnapalam (Pamban), south-east coast of India. Marine Fisheries Information Service Technical and Extension Series 211, 10–11.Google Scholar
Raven, H.C. (1939) On the anatomy and evolution of the locomotor apparatus of the nipple-tailed ocean sunfish (Maturus lanceolatus). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 76, 143–150.Google Scholar
Robison, B.H. (1975) Observations on living juvenile specimens of the slender mola, Ranzania laevis (Pisces, Molidae). Pacific Science 29, 27–29.Google Scholar
Shimose, T., Yokawa, K., Saito, H. and Tachihara, K. (2007) Evidence for use of the bill by blue marlin, Makaira nigricans, during feeding. Ichthyological Research 54, 420–422.Google Scholar
Shimose, T., Yokawa, K. and Saito, H. (2010) Habitat and food partitioning of billfishes (Xiphioidei). Journal of Fish Biology 76, 2418–2433. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8649.2010.02628.x.Google Scholar
Shimose, T., Yokawa, K. and Tachihara, K. (2013) Occurrence of slender mola Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776) in stomachs of blue marlin Makaira nigricans Lacépède, 1802. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 29, 1160–1162. doi: 10.1111/jai.12206.Google Scholar
Sims, D.W., Queiroz, N., Humphries, N.E., Lima, F.P. and Hays, G.C. (2009) Long-term GPS tracking of ocean sunfish Mola mola offers a new direction in fish monitoring. PLoS ONE 4, 1–6. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007351.Google Scholar
Smith, K.A., Hammond, M. and Close, P.G. (2010) Aggregation and stranding of elongate sunfish (Ranzania laevis) (Pisces: Molidae) (Pennant, 1776) on the southern coast of Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 93, 181–188.Google Scholar
Vaske, T. Jr, Vooren, C.M. and Lessa, R.P. (2003) Feeding strategy of yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), and wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri) in the Saint Peter and Saint Paul archipelago, Brazil. Boletim do Instituto de Pesca 29, 173–181.Google Scholar
Vaske, T. Jr, Vooren, C.M. and Lessa, R.P. (2004) Feeding habits of four species of Istiophoridae (Pisces: Perciformes) from northeastern Brazil. Environmental Biology of Fishes 70, 293–304.Google Scholar
Vaske, T. Jr, Travassos, P.E., Pinheiro, P.B., Hazin, F.H.V., Tolotti, M.T. and Barbosa, T.M. (2011) Diet of the blue marlin (Makaira nigricans, Lacépède, 1802) (Perciformes: Istiophoridae) of the southwestern equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Brazilian Journal of Aquatic Science and Technology 15, 65–70.Google Scholar
Watanabe, Y. and Sato, K. (2008) Functional dorsoventral symmetry in relation to lift-based swimming in the ocean sunfish Mola mola . PLoS ONE 3, 1–7. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003446.Google Scholar