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Multiple lionfish (Pterois spp.) new occurrences along the Brazilian coast confirm the invasion pathway into the Southwestern Atlantic

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Abstract

The invasion of the northwestern Atlantic by the Indo-Pacific lionfish has developed extraordinarily fast. In less than 30 years, lionfish have dramatically expanded their distribution range to an area encompassing the eastern coast of the USA, Bermuda, the entire Caribbean region and the Gulf of Mexico. Until now, just a single sighting had been reported in the South Atlantic and it was questionable whether lionfish would invade this region like it has in the northwestern Atlantic. Here we report four new records of lionfish for the Brazilian coast, in the southwestern Atlantic. Two individuals were captured in mesophotic reefs underneath the Amazon river plume, one in an oceanic archipelago distant 350 km from Brazil’s tropical continental coast, and the fourth in the subtropical coast. The records in the Amazon and in the oceanic regions support previous inferences of lionfish invasion routes into the south Atlantic. The subtropical record, despite being considered too far away for a single larval dispersal event from the Caribbean, is recurrent and could be a result of aquarium releases.

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Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support for continuous monitoring of the Brazilian oceanic islands is provided by “Programa de Monitoramento de Longa Duração das Comunidades Recifais de Ilhas Oceânicas – PELD ILOC” (CNPq 441241/2016-6, CELF-PI). Fish landing monitoring in the North Brazilian coast is supported by Projeto Áreas Marinhas e Costeiras Protegidas—GEF Mar of the Federal Government (AGCMK) and the Programa de Capacitação Institucional (MCTIC/CNPq, 444338/2018–7 and 300675/2019–4; APM). We thank the logistic support of ICMBio of Fernando de Noronha, Queiroz Divers and Sea Paradise Divers staff and G Pesca for the photographic record of the specimen observed in the Amapá. CELF and SRF thank their productivity grants from CNPq-PQ.

Funding

Partial financial support was received from CNPq 441241/2016–6, CELF-PI.

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Specimens collection were performed by Wagner Santos, Clara Buck, Alexandre Marceniuk, and Alex Klautau. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Osmar Luiz, Carlos Ferreira, Sergio Floeter and Luiz Rocha and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Osmar J. Luiz.

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Luiz, O.J., dos Santos, W.C.R., Marceniuk, A.P. et al. Multiple lionfish (Pterois spp.) new occurrences along the Brazilian coast confirm the invasion pathway into the Southwestern Atlantic. Biol Invasions 23, 3013–3019 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-021-02575-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-021-02575-8

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