Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-pfhbr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T10:58:48.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

First record of Mobula japanica on the west coast of Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2014

Kim Smith ,
Alan Pearce ,
Chris Dowling  and
Seema Fotedar
Kim Smith*
Affiliation:
WA Fisheries and Marine Research Laboratories, PO Box 20, North Beach, WA 6920, Australia
Alan Pearce
Affiliation:
WA Fisheries and Marine Research Laboratories, PO Box 20, North Beach, WA 6920, Australia Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Bentley, WA 6845, Australia
Chris Dowling
Affiliation:
WA Fisheries and Marine Research Laboratories, PO Box 20, North Beach, WA 6920, Australia
Seema Fotedar
Affiliation:
WA Fisheries and Marine Research Laboratories, PO Box 20, North Beach, WA 6920, Australia
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: K. Smith, Department of Fisheries, Western Australia, PO Box 20, North Beach, 6920, Australia email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

A spinetail devilray (Mobula japanica) was recorded for the first time in the western waters of Australia. The beach-stranded individual was observed in March 2013 on the southern coast of Western Australia (latitude 34.8811°S, longitude 118.4079°E). This is the southernmost record of this species in Australian waters. Previous Australian records of this species have been restricted to the east coast, where sightings have been within the latitudinal range of 14–33°S. The individual observed in Western Australia was a mature male, with a disc width of 257 cm. The occurrence coincided with the maximum recorded summer sea surface temperature (22.0°C) along the southern coast of Western Australia and an abnormally strong flow in the Leeuwin Current for that time of year.

Keywords

range extensionclimate changeocean warming
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 7 , 2014 , e69
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

Caputi, N., Fletcher, W.J., Pearce, A. and Chubb, C.F. (1996) Effect of the Leeuwin Current on the recruitment of fish and invertebrates along the Western Australian coast. Marine and Freshwater Research 47, 147–155.Google Scholar
Caputi, N., Jackson, G. and Pearce, A. (2014) The marine heat wave off Western Australia during the summer of 2010/11—2 years on. Fisheries Research Report, Department of Fisheries, Western Australia, No. 250, 36 pp.Google Scholar
Couturier, L.I.E., Marshall, A.D., Jaine, F.R.A., Kashiwagi, T., Pierce, S.J., Townsend, K.A., Weeks, S.J., Bennett, M.B. and Richardson, A.J. (2012) Biology, ecology and conservation of the Mobulidae. Journal of Fish Biology 80, 1075–1119.Google Scholar
Croll, D.A., Newton, K.M., Weng, K., Galván-Magaña, F., O'Sullivan, J. and Dewar, H. (2012) Movement and habitat use by the spine-tail devil ray in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Marine Ecology Progress Series 465, 193–200.Google Scholar
Cuevas-Zimbrón, E., Sosa-Nishizaki, O., Pérez-Jiménez, J.C. and O'Sullivan, J.B. (2013) An analysis of the feasibility of using caudal vertebrae for ageing the spinetail devilray, Mobula japanica (Müller and Henle, 1841). Environmental Biology of Fishes 96, 907–914.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffy, C.A.J. and Abbot, D. (2003) Sightings of mobulid rays from northern New Zealand, with confirmation of the occurrence of Manta birostra in New Zealand waters. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 37, 715–721.Google Scholar
Feng, M., Meyers, G., Pearce, A. and Wijffels, S. (2003) Annual and interannual variations of the Leeuwin Current at 32°S. Journal of Geophysical Research 108, 3355. doi:10.1029/2002JC001763.Google Scholar
Feng, M., McPhaden, M.J., Xie, S. and Hafner, J. (2013) La Niña forces unprecedented Leeuwin Current warming in 2011. Scientific Reports 3, 1277. doi:10.1038/srep01277.Google Scholar
Gopurenko, D., Hughes, J.M. and Bellchambers, L. (2003) Colonisation of the southwest Australian coastline by mud crabs: evidence for a recent range expansion or human induced translocation? Marine and Freshwater Research 54, 1–8.Google Scholar
Koslow, J.A., Pesant, S., Feng, M., Pearce, A., Fearns, P., Moore, T., Matear, R. and Waite, A. (2008) The effect of the Leeuwin Current on phytoplankton biomass and production off Southwestern Australia. Journal of Geophysical Research 113. doi:10.1029/2007JC004102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Last, P.R. and Stevens, J.D. (2009) Sharks and rays of Australia. 2nd edition. Hobart, Tasmania: CSIRO Publishing.Google Scholar
Maxwell, J.G.R. and Cresswell, G.R. (1981) Dispersal of tropical marine larvae to the Great Australian Bight by the Leeuwin Current. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 32, 493–500.Google Scholar
Molony, B.W., Newman, S.J., Joll, L., Lenanton, R.C.J. and Wise, B. (2011) Are Western Australian waters the least productive waters for finfish across two oceans? A review with a focus on finfish resources in the Kimberley region and North Coast Bioregion. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 94, 323–332.Google Scholar
Müller, J. and Henle, F.G.J. (1841) Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen. Berlin: Veit, 200 pp.Google Scholar
Notarbartolo-di-Sciara, G. (1988) Natural history of the rays of the genus Mobula in the Gulf of California. Fisheries Bulletin 86, 45–66.Google Scholar
Pearce, A.F., Helleren, S.K.R. and Marinelli, M. (2000) Review of productivity levels of Western Australian coastal and estuarine waters for mariculture planning purposes. Fisheries Research Report, Department of Fisheries, Western Australia, No.123, 67 pp.Google Scholar
Pearce, A., Lenanton, R., Jackson, G., Moore, J., Feng, M. and Gaughan, D. (2011) The ‘marine heat wave’ off Western Australia during the summer of 2010/11. Fisheries Research Report, Department of Fisheries, Western Australia, No. 222, 36 pp.Google Scholar
Pearce, A.F. and Feng, M. (2007) Observations of warming on the Western Australian continental shelf. Marine and Freshwater Research 58, 914–920.Google Scholar
Pearce, A.F. and Feng, M. (2013) The rise and fall of the ‘marine heat wave’ off Western Australia during the summer of 2010/2011. Journal of Marine Systems 111/112, 139–156.Google Scholar
Reynolds, R.W and Smith, T.M. (1994) Improved global sea surface temperature analyses using optimal interpolation. Journal of Climate 7, 929–948.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
Smith, R.L., Huyer, A., Godfrey, J.S. and Church, J.A. (1991) The Leeuwin Current off Western Australia, 1986–87. Journal of Physical Oceanography 21, 323–345.Google Scholar
Townsend, K.A. and Kyne, P.M. (2010) New records of the Japanese devilray Mobula japanica (Müller & Henle 1841) for Australian waters. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum: Nature 55, 225–230.Google Scholar
Ward, R.D., Zemlak, T.S., Innes, B.H., Last, P.R., Hebert, P.D.N. (2005) DNA barcoding Australia's fish species. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 360, 1847–1857.Google Scholar
Wernberg, T., Smale, D.A., Tuya, F., Thomsen, M.S., Langlois, T.J., de Bettignies, T., Bennett, S. and Rousseaux, C.S. (2013) An extreme climatic event alters marine ecosystem structure in a global biodiversity hotspot. Nature Climate Change 3, 78–82. doi:10.1038/nclimate1627.Google Scholar
White, W.T., Giles, J., Dharmadi, and Potter, I.C. (2006) Data on the bycatch fishery and reproductive biology of mobulid rays (Myliobatiformes) in Indonesia. Fisheries Research 82, 65–73.Google Scholar