New record of Alopias superciliosus Lowe, 1841 in the North-Western Mediterranean and annotated review of the Mediterranean records

Abstract

On 9th September 2015 the head of a shark belonging to the genus Alopias, was landed at Camogli harbour in the Ligurian Sea (North Western Mediterranean). The specimen has been caught 16 miles far from the coast (44° 06’ N, 008° 57’ E) as by-catch of the mesopelagic swordfish longline, but only the head was recovered, due to the predatory/scavenging activity by other shark specimens. The specimen was a female of big-eye thresher shark Alopias superciliosus a highly migratory species worldwide distributed in tropical and temperate waters but rarely caught in the Mediterranean Sea. The present record is the northenmost reported for this species in the Mediterranean area and the sixth in Italian waters.