Sea cucumbers (phylum Echinodermata) are common members of benthic communities in many marine ecosystems. They function as nutrient recyclers and bioturbators of soft bottoms, and are preyed upon by birds, fishes, mollusks, crustaceans and other taxa. In the Central Mexican Pacific, Islas Marietas harbours a complex and diverse community of corals and benthic invertebrates, with a particularly well-represented assemblage of echinoderms. However, little is known about the diversity of holothurians in the area. Between 2012 and 2014 a bimonthly census was conducted at Islas Marietas, and seven species were recorded for the first time at this location: Holothuria (Halodeima) inornata, Holothuria (Mertensiothuria) hilla, Holothuria (Platyperona) difficilis, Neocucumis veleronis, Lissothuria ornata, Afrocucumis ovulum and Pachythyone pseudolugubris. The absence of previous records of these species may be associated with their low densities and cryptic habits. This report acts to fill a critical knowledge gap in the distribution of holothurians in the eastern tropical Pacific and highlights the under-appreciated biodiversity of this Natural Protected Area.

The present contribution reports on the capture of two adult male specimens of the Asian/Japanese shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus (de Haan, 1835) from Glamorgan, south Wales and Kent, southern England. These represent the first records of this species from mainland Great Britain.

We report on three aberrantly plumaged White-chinned Petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis from the Brazilian Economic Exclusive Zone in the south-west Atlantic Ocean – the first reports based upon tangible evidence for the region. Two of them showed a low degree of colour aberration (some white around the eyes and on the upper-wing coverts), whereas the third exhibited the highest degree of plumage aberration so far reported for the species: a plumage mostly white with brown freckles on the upper- and under-parts, head and nape. We also commented on problems related to at-sea identification of aberrantly plumaged seabirds.

The present paper reports the occurrence of the Antarctic coral Flabellum impensum in Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina, and extends its distribution northwards in the south-west Atlantic Ocean. Nine individuals were found in Argentinean coastal waters in 2014, also representing one of the shallowest records of the species.

Okenia aspersa is a north-eastern Atlantic species, only previously recorded as Okenia quadricornis from the Malta Archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, and in juvenile forms, from Sicily and the Gulf of Naples. A second adult specimen is recorded in the present paper, which was found along the Noli Cape coast, in the western Ligurian Sea (Italy). It was found on pebbles at a depth of 10 m. In the same area, at a depth of 5.5 m, two specimens of Doto koenneckeri and three of their egg masses were found. This species, also described from Norway and Ireland, was only previously known to occur in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain and France. It is likely that the cold winter temperatures of the Ligurian Sea allowed this species to live and reproduce.

Gymnothorax prolatus is recorded for the first time from the Indian Ocean on the basis of four specimens collected in the Bay of Bengal off India and one from the Arabian Sea off Pakistan. These records extend the range of the species from Taiwan to the north-western Indian Ocean.

Three species of dexaminid amphipods are currently known from the Arctic, but none of them have been hitherto recorded in the west Spitsbergen fjords (Svalbard). In 2010, four individuals of dexaminid Guernea (Prinassus) nordenskioldi were sampled for the first time in the mouth of Isfjorden, a large fjord system located at 78°N. The species was originally described by Hansen (1888) from West Greenland and since then it has been collected in a number of locations showing almost circumarctic distribution. This study represents the first record of the family Dexaminidae and the species G. (P.) nordenskioldi from west Spitsbergen (Greenland Sea).

Orcinus orca is a cosmopolitan species and the most widely distributed marine mammal. Its diet includes over 140 species of fish, cephalopods, sea birds and marine mammals. However, many populations are specialised on certain specific prey items. Three genetically distinct populations have been described in the North Atlantic. Population A (that includes the Icelandic and Norwegian sub-populations) is believed to be piscivorous, as is population C, which includes fish-eating killer whales from the Strait of Gibraltar. In contrast, population B feeds on both fish and marine mammals. Norwegian killer whales follow the Norwegian spring spawning herring stock. The only description in the literature of Norwegian killer whales feeding on another cetacean species is a predation event on northern bottlenose whales in 1968. Daily land-based surveys targeting sperm whales were conducted from the Andenes lighthouse using BigEyes® binoculars (25×, 80 mm). The location of animals at sea was approximated through the use of an internal reticule system and a graduated wheel. On 24 June 2012 at 3:12 am, an opportunistic sighting of 11 killer whales was made off Andenes harbour. The whales hunted and fed on a harbour porpoise. Despite these species having overlapping distributions in Norwegian waters, this is the first predatory event reported in the literature.

Vertebral deformity and fusion are reported in four Pampus species, Pampus cinereus, Pampus echinogaster, Pampus liuorum and Pampus punctatissimus (family: Stromateidae) collected from Guangdong, China and from the Kii Peninsula, Honshu Island, Japan. All abnormalities were found in the caudal region of the vertebral column of the four specimens of Pampus examined, which included cases of missing vertebrae, lordosis and deformed centra. In addition, minor anomalies were also noticed in the abnormal specimen of Pampus liuorum. Possible causes such as genetic and epigenetic factors may be implicated in this anomaly.

Tropical box jellyfish include some of the world's most venomous animals, leading researchers and the media to wonder whether changes in climate may drive these species into sub-tropical waters. The discovery, therefore, of small box jellyfish in the waterways of the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast of south-east Queensland raised concern. This pygmy species proved to be new to science, separated from other species in the genus Chiropsella by its very small size; its semi-circular phacellae; very shallow, coalesced gastric saccules; its peculiar, long pedalia where the ‘palm’ is greatly reduced and the non-opposing ‘fingers’ branch off together at the same level; and a knee-like bend of the pedalial canal. The residential canal/river habitat of this species of chirodropid raises the question of whether this area is also suitable for habitation by the larger, more virulent chirodropids such as the so-called ‘deadly box jellyfish’, Chironex fleckeri. This new species, Chiropsella saxoni sp. nov., brings the total number of chirodropid species described from Australian waters to five.

Heteropanope glabra Stimpson, 1858 belonging to family Pilumnidae is reported for the first time from the mangrove mudflats of India. The identification of the species is difficult because the species shares similar morphological characters with other closely related species like Benthopanope indica (De Man, 1887). Studies in the past have reported the presence of H. glabra from coastal areas of Burma to Japan. The present study reports the presence of H. glabra on the western coast of India, which lies outside the old distribution range of the species.

The Red Sea record of the Ambon scorpionfish Pteroidichthys amboinensis is confirmed based on two specimens collected at Eilat, Israel in 1966 and in 1997. The species is widespread but very rare, known from scattered localities in the Indo-West Pacific, otherwise occurring from India and Indonesia east to Marquesas Islands.

This study reports the first occurrence of partial albinism in a tropical anguillid eel Anguilla bengalensis bengalensis from Malaysia. This paper also describes the first record of albinism in the genus Anguilla. The occurrence of albinism in our specimen of Anguilla might have been caused by three factors: (1) contamination effects; (2) random genetic alterations; or (3) genetic alteration due to small population size. The present results suggest that the albinism in A. bengalensis bengalensis is probably caused by random genetic alteration. Partial albinism may not be a handicap in the life of the present specimen because the eel could still potentially grow to more than 1 m in total length, just like a normal adult eel.

Qualitative samples of ‘opisthobranchs’ were collected from different beaches and estuaries in Ceará State, North-east Brazil. Further species distributions from the literature were used to infer patterns of distribution and to analyse faunal similarity among Atlantic biogeographic areas, Brazilian zones and the Ceará State. A total of 35 new records are reported for the Ceará State, including 19 new records from the North-east Brazilian Shelf (NBS), 12 new from the Brazilian Province and two new records from the South Atlantic. More than half of the species in this area are common between the Caribbean and Brazilian provinces, which demonstrates their capacity for crossing the Amazon–Orinoco barrier. The high percentage of occurrence in the NBS and the South Brazilian Bight, when compared to neighbouring zones, may be attributed to the poor knowledge of the Brazilian ‘opisthobranch’ fauna.

The ascidian fauna at Campbell Bay, Bquary Beach and Laxman Beach, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, was surveyed. A total of six species – Botrylloides leachi, Botrylloides pizoni, Clavelina picta, Clavelina robusta, Phallusia julinea and Polycarpa pigmentate – were newly recorded in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the genera Clavelina was recorded for the first time in India. It is likely that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands provide a better environment for the growth of ascidians and this area in particular is populated by a greater variety of these ascidians than any of the other areas of the islands. This paper details their morphological and taxonomical features.

We report 37 species of heterobranch sea slugs from the National Park Alacranes reef, located in the Campeche Bank, at the south-eastern Gulf of Mexico, of which 18 species are reported for the first time in this reef. With this contribution, the species richness in this national park increases to up to 67. The species Nakamigawaia felis, Petalifera sp., Elysia flava, Elysia pratensis and Bulbaeolidia sp. are reported in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. The geographical distribution ranges for Oxynoe azuropunctata, Elysia ornata, Placida kingstoni, Aphelodoris antillensis and Tritonia hamnerorum are extended westward. Those for Elysia flava, Pleurobranchus areolatus and Felimare ruthae are extended both northward and westward.

The cookiecutter shark, Isistius brasiliensis, is confirmed for the first time from the eastern North Pacific Ocean. The shark, a female 432 mm in total length, was caught in a sablefish pot at a depth of 1132 m off San Nicolas Island, California, USA (32°59′05″N 120°25′99″W).

A single specimen of the African spadefish, Tripterodon orbis, was landed in a gill net operating off Visakhapatnam on 13 December 2013. The morphometric and meristic characters of the recorded specimen are described and discussed herein. This is the first occurrence of the species from the north-east coast of India, exhibiting an extension in distribution from the southern to the northern region, along the Bay of Bengal.

A checklist of Gymnolaemata bryozoans from Bahia State, north-east Brazil, is presented. Specimens are lodged in the Bryozoa collection of the Museu de Zoologia at the Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA). The checklist comprises 135 species in 54 families, the majority belonging to the order Cheilostomata.