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Occurrence of Pterois miles in the Island of Kefalonia (Greece): the Northernmost Dispersal Record in the Mediterranean Sea

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Abstract

Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828) is one of the worst aquatic invaders in history and its rapid dispersal in the Mediterranean Sea raise serious concerns for local biomes. On April 2019, one adult specimen was caught by gillnets close to the shoreline of the island of Kefalonia, Greece. This occurrence, confirmed by DNA barcoding, represents the northernmost record of the species in the Mediterranean Sea, up today, suggesting that the Ionian Sea corridor facilitates fast dispersal of ecological versatile species such as P. miles to higher latitudes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the fisherman Dionysis Stefanatos for provision of the specimen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Fisheries, Regional Unit of Kefalonia, Region of Ionian Islands, 28100, Argostoli, Greece

    Christopher Vavasis, Gabriel Simotas & Efthimios Spinos

  2. Department of Fisheries, Regional Unit of Thesprotia, Region of Epirus, P. Tsaldari 18, 46100, Igoumenitsa, Greece

    Evangelos Konstantinidis & Costas Perdikaris

  3. Department of Genetics, Development and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Stella Minoudi & Alexandros Triantafyllidis

Authors
  1. Christopher Vavasis
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  2. Gabriel Simotas
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  3. Efthimios Spinos
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  4. Evangelos Konstantinidis
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  5. Stella Minoudi
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  6. Alexandros Triantafyllidis
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  7. Costas Perdikaris
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Correspondence to Costas Perdikaris.

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Vavasis, C., Simotas, G., Spinos, E. et al. Occurrence of Pterois miles in the Island of Kefalonia (Greece): the Northernmost Dispersal Record in the Mediterranean Sea. Thalassas 36, 171–175 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41208-019-00175-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41208-019-00175-x

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