We report here, for the first time, the predation activity of the French angelfish Pomacanthus paru on the jellyfish Chrysaora lactea on Brazilian rocky reefs. The activity involved a group of 14 P. paru and was documented by pictures. We believe that temporarily available food resources benefit species with a more generalist diet.

This record represents the northernmost occurrence of Lessepsian migrant fish Siganus luridus in the Aegean Sea. A single specimen was caught off the coast of Assos, Edremit Bay, in November 2014 by trammel net at a depth of about 2–3 m on a sandy, rocky bottom mixed with Posidonia. Here, the morphometric and meristic characteristics of the specimen are identified and the dispersion of the species in the Mediterranean Sea is briefly discussed.

Found at four sites in the coastal waters of Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, an encrusting cheilostomatous bryozoan unknown from Europe was identified by microscopical and scanning electron microscope studies as Schizobrachiella verrilli (Cheilostomata, Schizoporellidae). Until now, it was only known from the Atlantic coast of North America. Historic data confirms the existence of S. verrilli in the North Sea since 1905 and the few recent findings suggest that S. verrilli is a rare species living at refugial sites such as the sublittoral shell banks of the North Sea.

The finding of a rare specimen of Squatina squatina off the Sicilian coast of the Strait of Messina (Central Mediterranean Sea) and its maintenance in an aquarium is reported. The morphometric and meristic characters are presented. The record is proposed as a useful tool for raising attention to the state of this delicate species.

We describe for the first time the distribution and abundance of Oculina patagonica along the coasts of the Northern Alborán Sea (Andalusia Region, Southern Iberian Peninsula), which corresponds to the southernmost region of the known distribution range of the coral. After surveying 693 km of the Andalusia coastline, along three different depths, we showed that O. patagonica was restricted to the eastern shores of the Alborán Sea. It was only present in 7 out of 195 sampling stations in the eastern region along the studied coasts and at the depth range of 0–3 m. Moreover, we observed that the distribution of the species along the northern coasts of the Alborán Sea might be related to substrate availability and sea surface temperature. In the localities in which its presence was described, the annual mean sea water temperature was in the range of 18–21°C. In relation to substrate availability, it must be noted that the distribution of hard substrata – ideal for O. patagonica settlement and growth – along the sampling area, is not uniform in the study area; this might affect the continuity of the distribution of the species. Local studies such as this one are of importance as a starting point for delineating the species' relationship with its habitat, population boundaries and population ecology. Given the fast expansion of this species along the Mediterranean coasts, this study could serve as a basis for continuous monitoring of the spread of the species and its long-term effects on the ecosystem.

Sterrer's cave shrimp (Parhippolyte sterreri) is recorded for the first time from San Salvador Island, Bahamas. A single adult specimen was collected in June 2011 with hand nets at the southern conduit mouth in Mermaid Pond, an anchialine pond on the south-east corner of the island. Twelve additional specimens were collected in June 2013 from two additional sites near Mermaid Pond (Dunk City Pond and the Pigeon Creek Conduit). These collections represent a minor range extension of P. sterreri in the Bahamas. Additionally, we report on populations of Barbouria cubensis observed in 17 other anchialine ponds on San Salvador Island.

Three species of bivalves, Thyasira succisa, Lyonsia norwegica and Poromya granulate, were recorded for the first time in the Adriatic Sea during surveys conducted from 2010 to 2012 on offshore relict sand bottoms at a depth range of 45–80 m.

Our current knowledge on the carcharhinid sharks occurring in Turkey's seas comprises rudimentary data. Recently discovered photographic evidence suggests that Carcharhinus spp. have been present in the Sea of Marmara since the 1950s. This evidence also extends the known historical distributional range of Carcharhinus spp. into Marmaric waters, a northern extension of the Mediterranean basin. The results of previous and recent ichthyological inventories of the Sea of Marmara suggest that, currently, no species of the Carcharhinidae family occur in Marmaric waters. Further studies could provide an answer to the question: do any species of the Carcharhinidae family inhabit the Sea of Marmara?

Between 2007 and 2014, three individual thorny seahorses, Hippocampus histrix, were recorded in Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia. Specimens ranged in size from 6 to 8 cm and were considered to be females. This extends the known range of H. histrix along the east coast of Australia by 1700 km.

Echinoderm samples were collected from Hormuz Island in 2010–2011. The sampling was based on a qualitative survey, conducted in intertidal areas. The collected specimens were transferred to a laboratory for identification according to the valid literature. In this study, ten species of echinoderms were collected, including: six Asteroidea (Astropecten monoacanthus, Luidia hardwicki, Aquilonastra iranica, Aquilonastra samyni, Astropecten polyacanthus pheragmorus, Astropecten polyacanthus polyacanthus); two Ophiuroidea (Macrophiothrix elongate, Ophiocoma scalopendarina); and three Echinoidea (Echinometra mathaei, Echinodiscus bisperforatus, Echinodiscus auritus).

We report the occurrence of the sponge-dwelling snapping shrimp Synalpheus dardeaui (Decapoda: Alpheidae) for the first time from Porto Seguro (Bahia, Brazil) and record an additional sponge host for the species, Ircinia cf. strobilina. Synalpheus dardeaui was previously known from Florida and some localities in the Caribbean Sea. Therefore, the present finding represents the first record of the species in the south-western Atlantic, extending its southern distribution limit by a latitude of 28° from Curaçao (12°N) to Porto Seguro (16°S). Variations between the Brazilian and Florida–Caribbean materials are discussed and illustrated.

An adult male specimen of Uca rapax (Crustacea, Decapoda, Ocypodidae), containing bilaterally hypertrophied chelipeds, was found in the mangrove area of the Rio Grande do Norte state, north-eastern Brazil. The chelipeds are subequal in size and similar to the major cheliped of normal male specimens of Uca rapax. This paper is the first record of the aforementioned anomaly for the species from the Brazilian coastline.

A fifth confirmed Neocyema specimen, caught in the Denmark Strait off the coast of south-east Greenland, provides a North Atlantic range expansion for the genus and is compared to all four previous records. Due to taxonomic issues with both adults and larvae, the new specimen from waters near Greenland is tentatively referred to as Neocyema erythrosoma and represents the largest specimen ever recorded. Morphological and molecular data are included for future comparisons. Distributional and morphological differences exist between specimens, although the present rarity of these fishes precludes an evaluation of diversity within Neocyema.

The Hawaiian Archipelago contains some of the best surveyed black coral populations on the globe; however, most previous surveys have grouped all black coral species into a single category. As a result, the unique ecological features of individual species have not been identified. This study mapped the spatial distribution of eight antipatharian species (Antipathes griggi, Antipathes grandis, Cirrhipathes cf. anguina, Stichopathes echinulata, Stichopathes? sp., Aphanipathes verticillata, Acanthopathes undulata and Myriopathes cf. ulex) found in shallow-waters (<150 m) along the Hawaiian Archipelago, and compared data on substrate type, depth and temperature among species. All black coral species were exclusively recorded on hard substrates and were generally widely distributed along the Hawaiian Islands. Additionally, antipatharian species were found at overlapping depths and temperatures, although there were significant differences in the mean depths and temperatures between most species. In cases where species did not have significant differences in mean depths, the overlapping species had different colony and polyp morphologies, which may serve to minimize competition by allowing species to grow most efficiently under particular current regimes. This study represents one of the first to map the spatial distribution of sympatric antipatharian species, and indicates that individual species exploit unique environments in terms of depth and temperature or have unique morphologies to avoid overlap.

The Mediterranean endemic coral Maasella edwardsi (de Lacaze-Duthiers, 1888) is recorded for the first time from the Aegean Sea coasts of Turkey. A dozen colonies of the species were observed on rocks and the rhizomes of Posidonia oceanica meadows during the coral surveys carried out between 2012 and 2014. This record shows the northernmost occurrence of species in terms of geographic distribution in the Turkish coasts. The number of known species for the Anthozoan fauna of Turkey has increased to 76 with this new record.

The threatened grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus) is reported for the first time from oceanic coral reefs in the Timor Sea. Generally known from temperate and subtropical coastal reef habitats, this species was encountered by Indonesian traditional fishers on oceanic coral reefs in an area of the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone known as the 1974 MoU Box, some 200 km from the Australian mainland. The presence of C. taurus on these remote tropical reefs bears important management implications, including the species’ protected status in Australian waters and the challenges of regulating catches in areas permitted for traditional Indonesian fishing.

The roughbar frogfish, Fowlerichthys avalonis, is one of the largest frogfish residents of rocky bottoms, at depths of 10 to 300 m, inhabiting the eastern Pacific. It is an endemic species with a geographic range along the continental shelf from the southern United States to Chile. This study provides evidence for the occurrence of the species at Socorro Island (18°46′19″N 110°53′43″W), Revillagigedo Archipelago, Mexico, obtained from videos taken in a submersible at a depth of 66 m. This report extends the known distribution of F. avalonis to 400 km off the mainland coast of the Americas, and represents the fourth species of the family Antennariidae to be reported for the Revillagigedo Archipelago.

Still photos of the seafloor in Raudfjorden, Spitsbergen, recorded in 2011, showed an abundant macroalga at a depth of 166 m. The macroalga was observed attached to stones of varying size and streaming in the bottom current, which would imply that the alga was alive and growing in situ. The alga likely experiences very low-light conditions, as it is present in a turbid fjord influenced by glacial sedimentation. Arctic macroalgae are often adapted to low-light conditions, but to the authors’ knowledge, the present report is the deepest record of living macroalgae in the high Arctic.

The oldest records on the sharks of the Sea of Marmara are limited to a few notes on two great white sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, which were caught in the southern part of the Bosphorus Strait by the bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) handliners in February and November of 1881 (Fergusson, 1996: Appendix 3, 345). A review of the shark-specific or general ichthyology studies of the Sea of Marmara, as well as of the daily newspapers published since the beginning of 1900s, providing information on the capture of sharks in Marmaric waters, revealed the historical and contemporary occurrence of 21 shark species in the Sea of Marmara. The contemporary occurrence of 13 of the 21 species in the Sea of Marmara has been confirmed by recent studies and fishery records. Recent studies showed that the fish fauna of the Sea of Marmara comprises 235 species, 13 of which are shark species, with the confirmed contemporary occurrences of sharks representing 5.53% of the total ichthyofauna.

In September 2014 an unusual mixture of ctenophores was recorded at Arboretet, south-western Norway and at Flødevigen, near Arendal on the south coast of Norway. In addition to the invasive American lobate ctenophore, Mnemiopsis leidyi, the common northern lobate ctenophore Bolinopsis infundibulum and the cydippid Pleurobrachia pileus, two beroid ctenophores, were noted – Beroe cucumis and Beroe gracilis. The latter species had not been documented before in Norwegian waters.