The sea cucumber Holothuria (Theelothuria) notabilis for the first time is reported from the Beibu Gulf, South China Sea. A morphological description of this new record with colour figures and scanning electron microcopy images of its ossicles are provided. This finding widens the geographical range of H. (T.) notabilis and indicates that this species may expand northwards in the South China Sea. With our new record, the subgenus theelothuria is now represented by three species in China.

The presence of the fish species Monocentris japonica is reported from the Iraqi waters of the Arabian Gulf. One adult specimen (125 mm total length) was caught from the waters around the Khor Abdullah within the Iraqi marine territory, giving a new ichthyofaunal record for the area.

The aim of the study was to investigate the benthic foraminiferal fauna around the mineral water spring in Pamucak Cove, north-west Kuşadası (Aydın) and figure out the effects of the spring on the fauna. The spring was located 200 m off the coast at 12.4 m depth and its temperature was 19.6°C. The study area was found to include a rich population of Red Sea originated Amphistegina lobifera, of which the distribution pattern is noteworthy. It is abundant in the centre of the spring and its close vicinity; its abundance decreases when getting away from the spring. It is more abundantly observed on the southern and western sides of the spring, whereas, it is outnumbered by Ammonia compacta and Elphidium crispum on the northern and eastern parts. The water currents around the spring were in north–south and north–west directions. The observed diverse diatom population around the spring constitutes the main food source and dispersal according to the currents may explain the reason for the abundance of the Amphistegina population on the southern and western sides of the study area. High abundances of A. lobifera have not yet been observed elsewhere in the Aegean Sea, although large populations of this species have been recorded on the south-west coasts of Turkey and in several stations on the south-east of Gokceada. Abundance of coloured individuals and Red Sea originated benthic species suggests the presence of special environmental as well as ecological conditions around the spring.

Rocas is the only atoll in the south-western Atlantic and comprises a shallow platform area of about 360 km2, distant 230 km from the continent and 130 km from Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, in Brazil. Since the 1970s, its marine flora has received the attention of several authors, giving rise to considerable and well-established knowledge about its algal biodiversity, with a total of 143 seaweed species reported for the area. Previous efforts stressed the interesting absence of the green algae Halimeda, usually abundant in tropical reefs and one of the most important seaweed groups in the structure of the tropical benthic community. Herein, we report for the first time the presence of Halimeda opuntia at Rocas, collected during an expedition in January 2012. Based on phylogenetic analysis, was proposed that H. opuntia was originated in the Indo-Pacific Ocean and that its establishment in Brazil was independent from populations of the Caribbean as a whole and the Bahamas in particular. Another hypothesis is the current scenario of increased frequency and intensity of extreme events along the Brazilian coast, which could explain the transport of propagules from adjacent areas towards the atoll.

Minami-Daito is an oceanic island located about 360 km east of Okinawa Island (a continental island), Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan. This is the first report of a peltogastrid rhizocephalan from an oceanic island in the northern hemisphere. The present specimen was identified as Dipterosaccus indicus based on the diagnostic characters of its external and internal morphology. Molecular analyses based on the partial sequence of the COI gene were consistent with the morphological identification. The number of species reported from oceanic islands may be limited by the lack of diversity in the structure and condition of their coastline, as well as the dispersal abilities of peltogastrids and their hosts.

Amphiprion tricinctus is an anemonefish endemic to the Marshall Islands that was previously reported to inhabit four species of sea anemone. Underwater visual surveys in 2009 and 2010 located five individuals of the anemone Stichodactyla haddoni in the shallow lagoon of Majuro Atoll. This is the first record of S. haddoni in the Marshall Islands and a significant north-eastern range extension by 2200 km from its nearest record in Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia. Stichodactyla haddoni was inhabited by juvenile and adult A. tricinctus. This report is the first to describe a symbiotic relationship between A tricinctus and S. haddoni. The number of host anemone species inhabited by A. tricinctus now extends to five.

Mangrove ecosystems are unique fish habitats because they provide shelter and food for juvenile fish. Hara Biosphere Reserve (HBR) is a coastal region in the Khuran Strait situated in the northern part of the Persian Gulf. Mangrove forests of this region are important for people's livelihoods. Moreover, shallow water, coastal wetlands and other estuarine habitats with very restricted water flow and nutrient rich areas provide shelter to young fish. The results of monitoring and Evaluation for Fishing Communities in 2008 showed that there are a total of 43 families of fish that were associated with HBR. Among 44 families Leiognathidae, Clupeidae, Carangidae and Mugilidae families are the most abundant fish species in the area. However, most popular fish were in the juvenile stage of their life cycle. Because of the rich diversity of fish in coastal waters, the lives of a large proportion of people living in this region are directly dependent on fishing. Results have shown that although there is no considerable difference in fish diversity among the different fishing methods, a clear distinction between the fishing methods and the weight of fish is obvious.

Herein, we describe the use of scars to photo-identify the goliath grouper, Epinephelus itajara. Three individuals were photo-identified and re-sighted several times at the same site along the Brazilian coast, including the longest report for site fidelity, with more than four years.

Forty-six individuals of Carcharodon carcharias were either recorded or sighted in Turkey's waters during a period from February 1881 to 28 September 2011. Total lengths (TLs) of the recorded great white sharks ranged from 85 cm TL to ~800 cm TL, and mass ranged between 12 kg and ~4500 kg. Three non-fatal shark attacks on boats of tuna hand-liners were also recorded. A North Aegean Sea specimen (85 cm TL; sp No. 45; Table 1) caught by a coastal trammel netter in Edremit Bay on July 6, 2011, is possibly the smallest neonate white shark from Mediterranean waters to date. Due to intensification of tuna fishing and the resulting decline or extinction of tuna stocks, C. carcharias is now apparently extinct from marmaric and bosphoric waters. Capture of 6 neonate great white sharks between 2008 and 2011, in the same period of the year (from late June to early July), in the waters of Edremit Bay (northern Aegean Sea, Turkey) suggests the possibility of a breeding ground in the region. The growing tuna farm industry offers a new possibility for encounters between humans and great white sharks off the Turkish coast.

Eight species of alpheid shrimps are reported for the first time from the coral reef systems off Mexico's northern Yucatan Peninsula (Alacranes, Madagascar and Serpiente Reefs). These species are: Alpheus immaculatus; Alpheus paraformosus; Alpheus punctatus; Parabetaeus hummelincki; Salmoneus depressus; Synalpheus chacei; Synalpheus dominicensis; and Synalpheus elizabethae. The geographical ranges of these species are extended into the southern Gulf of Mexico; most of them are recorded from Mexican territorial waters for the first time. Brief notes on their ecology and taxonomy are provided. Six species are illustrated by colour photographs.

A total of 34 marine algae are reported for the first time based on historical herbarium collections from the marine shores of Tonga in the central South Pacific Ocean: eight Rhodophyta and 26 Chlorophyta. One species of Rhodophyta, i.e. Trichogloea requienii, and four species of Chlorophyta, i.e. Caulerpa plumulifera, Codium extricatum, Udotea glaucescens and Valoniopsis pachynema, represent the first records from central Polynesia. The red alga Titanophora pikeana has only been previously reported in this region from the adjacent western Melanesian islands of Fiji and the isolated Hawaiian Islands to the north. The other 28 algal species are widely distributed marine species around tropical and subtropical islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Marivagia stellata, a cepheid jellyfish was previously recorded off Kerala, India in the south-east of the Arabian Sea. Now, the species has been found off the mouth of the River Indus, Pakistan for the first time. This new record greatly extends the range of its distribution to the north-east of the Arabian Sea along the coast of Pakistan.

Selwynia, is regarded as a senior subjective synonym of Aphanodactylus (Crustacea: Brachyura: Pinnotheroidea: Aphanodactylidae). This synonymy does not affect the family name Aphanodactylidae. A diagnosis is provided for Selwynia laevis and this species is re-described.

The range of the sicklefin lemon shark (Negaprion acutidens) is expanded to include Palmyra Atoll, in the Northern Line Islands, central Pacific. Despite the fact that researchers have been studying reef and lagoon flat habitats of the Atoll since 2003, lemon sharks were first observed in 2010, suggesting a recent colonization event. To date, only juveniles and sub-adult sharks have been observed.

Stratford Shoal is a topographic high dividing the west and central basins of Long Island Sound (north-west Atlantic). The southern end of the shoal has a linear, north–south-tending boulder reef along the crest. Repeated observations of the reef using remote and diver-held cameras from 1991 to 2010 found an apparently stable epibenthic community dominated by Haliclona oculata (branching sponge), Astrangia poculata (northern star coral), Mytilus edulis (blue mussel) and erect bryozoa. In 2012, when the boulder reef area was imaged as part of a benthic habitat mapping project, A. poculata was still abundant, but no H. oculata was found. A number of mechanisms (e.g. species interactions, disease, recruitment failure, thermal stress, sediment loading, freshwater input and physical disturbance) may have contributed, individually or synergistically, to the community shift. However, because of the ad hoc and aperiodic nature of the observations, drivers of the shift are indeterminate. As a result, whether the observed changes reflect a short-term disturbance or a long-term community state remains unclear, as do the effects of changes in the identity of the dominant species.

This paper provides an account of twelve intertidal species of hydroids reported from the State of Gujarat, north-west India. Six of them constitute new records for the coast of Gujarat, and four are reported for the first time from waters of India. Also reported for the first time from Indian waters are the genera Zyzzyzus and Nemalecium.

Neanthes rubicunda is a little-known nereidid species, with an east Atlantic, Mediterranean and north-west Indian Ocean distribution. The species was investigated in the Strait of Messina (Italy) from 1993 to 2008 during two ship grab and dredge sampling surveys, and ad hoc SCUBA diving, which provided data on its mesoscale and microscale distribution patterns. Depth distribution was shallower (from 4 to 60 m) and average individual size was more than 50% greater with respect to other Mediterranean populations. The species had average density of 4.1 ± 2.7 ind m−2, from a minimum of 0.15 ind m−2 within 20 m depth to a maximum of 16 ind m−2 up to 60 m. The distribution was asymmetrical on the opposite coastal sides of the Strait of Messina, in accordance with local hydrology and sea floor morphology. Coarse, current-swept sediments represent the elective habitat of N. rubicunda, whose settlement beneath and in the upper side of boulders might represent a strategy to contrast sea floor instability. Gut content, mainly constituted by algal thalli (90%) proved Halopteris filicina, Halopteris scoparia and Jania rubens the most frequently ingested seaweeds. Such algae were also found attached to the worm tube-opening, testifying for an algal-gardening behaviour with a prevalent trophic function. Fertile individuals were observed in May, June and July (sea temperature from 17 to 21°C).

An effective tagging technique represents a challenge for long-term studies in sea cucumbers. These studies require accurate identification, high tag retention and no adverse effects on vital rates or performance of the tagged individuals. We tested the retention rate of one external and one internal tag in the sea cucumber Holothuria mexicana. The passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag was inserted into the coelomic cavity and the T-bar (external tag) was attached in the upper surface of the body wall. Retention rate was lower, for both kinds of invasive tags, than required in long-term studies. Stress elicited by the tagging procedure caused evisceration of 40% of PIT-tagged individuals versus a 57% of T-bars during or no more than five minutes after tagging. No differences in evisceration between both tags were detected; nor any correlation between evisceration and length. To conclude, the tagging procedure harmed the animals and both PIT-tags and T-bars showed similar low retention rates after ten weeks. Both marks were not effective for long-term studies in Holothuria mexicana.

The diet of young Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) in the Bay of Biscay foraging ground was assessed using stomach-content analysis (SCA) and stable-isotope analysis coupled with isotope mixing model. Whereas SCA showed that the young tuna fed mainly on horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus), the estimation of liver and muscle mixing model analyses indicated that northern krill (Meganyctiphanes norvegica) was the most important food resource. These contrasting observations are probably due to the different time scales spanned by the different methods. The present results suggest that young bluefin tuna prey at different trophic levels of the Bay of Biscay pelagic food web, thus behaving as an opportunist and generalist predator.

We hereby provide new distributional data for alien and possible alien molluscs from the Italian seas, together with a brief review of their known Italian distribution and updated distributional maps. In particular, Haminoea cyanomarginata is confirmed for the Calabrian shores of the Strait of Messina area and is first reported from eastern and western Sicily, therefore suggesting a natural spreading into the Italian central Mediterranean Sea. Melibe viridis is confirmed for the Ionian Calabrian shores and Sardinia, where it was previously known from isolated records only. Pinctada imbricata radiata is first reported as naturally widening its distribution in Sardinia and in the Gulf of Taranto, where new populations are soon awaited, whilst Aplysia dactylomela is now expanding its range along the Italian Adriatic shores. And last, recent records of Anadara transversa from the Sabaudia Lake testify the role of lagoon systems as hot-spots for the introduction and secondary spreading of alien species, and indicate mussel aquaculture as the likely vector of introduction for its occurrence.