Updating knowledge on the Critically Endangered white skate Rostroraja alba (Lacepède, 1803) through the first record in North-East Sardinian coastal waters
Resumen
The white skate Rostroraja alba has exhibited a declining trend similar to that of several large-bodied batoids in recent years. Consequently, it has been classified as Critically Endangered in European waters by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The presence of this species in Sardinian seas (central-western Mediterranean Sea) was recently hypothesised following the discovery of a hatched eggcase. Our findings confirmed this hypothesis through the discovery of another eggcase (this time unhatched) and, more importantly, the capture of an immature female (total length 131.2 cm) which was estimated to be 6 years old. Moreover, molecular analysis demonstrated that the new eggcase and the specimen did not share the same mother, thus suggesting the presence of a resident population, albeit likely small, of the species in the Sardinian seas.
Article Details
- Cómo citar
-
BELLODI, A., DI CRESCENZO, S., CARBONARA, P., CROBE, V., FERRARI, A., MULAS, A., PORCU, C., FOLLESA, M. C., & CANNAS, R. (2024). Updating knowledge on the Critically Endangered white skate Rostroraja alba (Lacepède, 1803) through the first record in North-East Sardinian coastal waters. Mediterranean Marine Science, 25(2), 484–491. https://doi.org/10.12681/mms.37524
- Sección
- Short Communication
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (preferably in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Descargas
Los datos de descargas todavía no están disponibles.
Citas
Albano, P.S., Fallows, C., Fallows, M., Schuitema, O., Bernard, A.T. et al., 2021. Successful parks for sharks: No-take marine reserve provides conservation benefits to endemic and threatened sharks off South Africa. Biological conservation, 261, 109302.
Amsler, M.O., Smith, K.E., McClintock, J.B., Singh, H., Thatje, S. et al., 2015. In situ observations of a possible skate nursery off the western Antarctic Peninsula. Journal of Fish Biology, 86 (6), 1867-1872.
Aranha, A., Menezes, G., Pinho, M.R., 2009. Biological aspects of the velvet belly, Etmopterus spinax (Linnaeus 1758) off the Azores, North East Atlantic. Marine Biology Research, 5 (3), 257-267.
Bonanomi, S., Annibale, O., Lucchetti, A., Bottaro, M., 2023. Extinct but not entirely: A new occurrence of the critically endangered Squatina squatina (Linnaeus, 1758) stresses the urgency of its conservation in the Adriatic Sea. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 287, 108344.
Bradai, N.M., Enajjar, S. Saidi, B., 2023. Sharks’ Status in the Mediterranean Sea Urgent Awareness is Needed. Sharks - Past, Present and Future. IntechOpen. http://dx.doi. org/10.5772/intechopen.108162.
Carbonara, P., Zupa, W., Anastasopoulou, A., Bellodi, A., Bitetto, I. et al., 2019. Explorative analysis on red mullet (Mullus barbatus) ageing data variability in the Mediterranean. Scientia Marina 83 (S1), 271-279.
Catalano, G., Crobe, V., Ferrari, A., Baino, R., Massi, D. et al., 2022. Strongly structured populations and reproductive habitat fragmentation increase the vulnerability of the Mediterranean starry ray Raja asterias (Elasmobranchii, Rajidae). Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 32 (1), 66-84.
Catarino, D., Knutsen, H., Veríssimo, A., Olsen, E.M., Jorde, P.E. et al., 2015. The Pillars of Hercules as a bathymetric barrier to gene flow promoting isolation in a global deepsea shark (Centroscymnus coelolepis). Molecular Ecology, 24 (24), 6061-6079.
Clement, M., Snell, Q., Walke, P., Posada, D., Crandall, K., 2002. TCS: estimating gene genealogies. In Parallel and distributed processing symposium, international (Vol. 2, pp. 7-pp). IEEE Computer Society.
Coll, M., Piroddi, C., Steenbeek, J., Kaschner, K., Aguzzi, J. et al. 2010. The biodiversity of the Mediterranean sea: estimates, patterns, and threats. PloS One 5 (8), e11842.
Concha, F., Oddone, M.C., Bustamante, C., Morales, N., 2012. Egg capsules of the yellownose skate Zearaja chilensis (Guichenot 1848) and the roughskin skate Dipturus trachyderma (Krefft and Stehmann 1974) (Rajiformes: Rajidae) from the south-eastern Pacific Ocean. Ichthyological Research, 59, 323-327. Di
Crescenzo, S., Ferrari, A., Barría, C., Cannas, R., Cariani, A. et al. 2022. First evidence of population genetic structure of the deep-water blackmouth catshark Galeus melastomus Rafinesque, 1810. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9, 953895.
Dulvy, N.K., Pasolini, P., Notarbartolo, G., Serena, F., Tinti, F. et al., 2006. Rostroraja alba. In: IUCN 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. http://www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed on 22 January 2024).
Dulvy, N.K., Pacoureau, N., Rigby, C.L., Pollom, R.A., Jabado, R.W., et al. 2021. Overfishing drives over one-third of all sharks and rays toward a global extinction crisis. Current Biology, 31 (21), 4773-4787.
Dunn, N., Curnick, D.J., Carbone, C., Carlisle, A.B., Chapple, T.K. et al., 2023. Environmental DNA helps reveal reef shark distribution across a remote archipelago. Ecological Indicators, 154, 110718.
Ellis, J., Morey, G., Walls, R., 2015. Rostroraja alba. In: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e. T61408A48954174. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. http://www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed on 22 January 2024).
Federhen, S., 2012. The NCBI Taxonomy database. Nucleic Acids Research, 40, D136-D143, Finucci, B., Chin, C., O’Neill, H.L., White, W.T., Pinkerton, M.H., 2024. First observation of a skate egg case nursery in the Ross Sea. Journal of Fish Biology, 104 (5), 1645-1650.
Follesa, M.C., Agus, B., Bellodi, A., Cannas, R., Capezzuto, F. et al., 2019b. The MEDITS maturity scales as a useful tool for investigating the reproductive traits of key species in the Mediterranean Sea. Scientia Marina, 83 (S1).
Follesa, M.C., Marongiu, M.F., Zupa, W., Bellodi, A., Cau, A. et al., 2019a. Spatial variability of Chondrichthyes in the northern Mediterranean. Scientia Marina, 83 (1), 81-100.
Gubili, C., Macleod, K., Perry, W., Hanel, P., Batzakas, I. et al., 2016. Connectivity in the deep: phylogeography of the velvet belly lanternshark. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 115, 233-239.
IUCN. 2023. The IUCN red list of threatened species. Version 2023-1. Available at: https://www.iucnredlist.org (Accessed 22 January 2024).
Kadri, H., Marouani, S., Bradai, M.N., Bouaïn, A., Morize, E., 2014. Age, Growth, Mortality, Longevity and Reproductive Biology of the White Skate, Rostroraja alba (Chondrichthyes: Rajidae) of the Gulf of Gabès (Southern Tunisia, Central Mediterranean). Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 14, 193-204.
Kousteni, V., Kasapidis, P., Kotoulas, G., Megalofonou, P., 2015. Strong population genetic structure and contrasting demographic histories for the small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) in the Mediterranean Sea. Heredity, 114 (3), 333-343.
Kumar, S., Stecher, G., Li, M., Knyaz, C., Tamura, K., 2018. MEGA X: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis across Computing Platforms. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 35 (6), 1547-1549.
Last, P., Naylor, G., Séret, B., White, W., Stehmann, M. et al., 2016. Rays of the World. CSIRO Publishing.
Lavender, E., Aleynik, D., Dodd, J., Illian, J., James, M. et al., 2022. Movement patterns of a critically endangered elas mobranch (Dipturus intermedius) in a marine protected area. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 32 (2), 348-365.
Leigh, J.W., Bryant, D., 2015. Popart: full-feature software for haplotype network construction. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 6 (9), 1110-1116.
Leurs, G., Verkuil, Y.I., Hijner, N., Saalmann, F., Dos Santos, L. et al., 2023. Addressing data-deficiency of threatened sharks and rays in a highly dynamic coastal ecosystem using environmental DNA. Ecological Indicators, 154, 110795.
Maguire, K., O’Neill, H., Althaus, F., White, W., Williams, A., 2023. Seamount coral reefs are egg case nurseries for deepsea skates. Journal of Fish Biology, 102 (6), 1455-1469.
Maioli, F., Weigel, B., Chiarabelli, E., Manfredi, C., Anibaldi, A. et al., 2023. Influence of ecological traits on spatio-temporal dynamics of an elasmobranch community in a heavily exploited basin. Scientific Reports, 13 (1), 9596.
Marongiu, M.F., Porcu, C., Bellodi, A., Cannas, R., Carugati, L. et al., 2021. On the presence of the Endangered white skate Rostroraja alba in Sardinian waters. Mediterranean Marine Science, 22 (1), 137-140.
McEachran, J.D., Compagno, L.J.V., 1982. Interrelationships of and within Breviraja based on anatomical structures (Pisces, Rajoidei). Bulletin of Marine Science, 32, 399-425.
Melis, R., Di Crescenzo, S., Cariani, A., Ferrari, A., Crobe, V. et al. 2023a. I Like This New Me: Unravelling Population Structure of Mediterranean Electric Rays and Taxonomic Uncertainties within Torpediniformes. Animals, 13 (18), 2899.
Melis, R., Vacca, L., Bellodi, A., Cau, A., Porcu, C. et al., 2020. Insights into population genetics, connectivity and demographic history of the longnosed skate Dipturus oxyrinchus (Linnaeus, 1758) in the western Mediterranean Sea. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 30 (1), 86-103.
Melis, R., Vacca, L., Cariani, A., Carugati, L., Charilaou, C. et al., 2023b. Baseline genetic distinctiveness supports structured populations of thornback ray in the Mediterranean Sea. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 33 (5), 458-471.
Miller, S.A., Dykes, D.D., Polesky, H.F., 1988. A simple salting out procedure for extracting DNA from human nucleated cells. Nucleic Acids Research, 16 (3), 1215.
Nikolic, N., Devloo‐Delva, F., Bailleul, D., Noskova, E., Rougeux, C. et al., 2023. Stepping up to genome scan allows stock differentiation in the worldwide distributed blue shark Prionace glauca. Molecular Ecology, 32 (5), 1000-1019.
O’Keefe, M., Bengil, E.G.T., Palmer, J.L., Beton, D., Çağlar, Ç. et al., 2023. Diversity and distribution of elasmobranchs in the coastal waters of Cyprus: using bycatch data to inform management and conservation. Frontiers in Marine Science, 10, 1181437.
Porcu, C., Bellodi, A., Cau, Al., Cannas, R., Marongiu, M.F. et al., 2020. Uncommon biological patterns of a little known endemic Mediterranean skate, Raja polystigma (Risso, 1810). Regional Studies in Marine Science, 34, 101065.
Porcu, C., Marongiu, M.F., Bellodi, A., Cannas, R., Cau, A. et al., 2017. Morphological descriptions of the eggcases of skates (Rajidae) from the central-western Mediterranean, with notes on their distribution. Helgoland Marine Research, 71 (1), 10.
Ramírez-Amaro, S., Ordines, F., Esteban, A., Garcia, C., Guijarro, B. et al., 2020. The diversity of recent trends for chondrichthyans in the Mediterranean reflects fishing exploitation and a potential evolutionary pressure towards early maturation. Scientific Reports, 10 (1), 547.
Ratnasingham, S., Hebert, P.D.N., 2007. BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data System (http://www.barcodinglife.org). Molecular Ecology Notes, 7 (3), 355-364.
Rozas, J., Ferrer-Mata, A., Sánchez-DelBarrio, J.C., Guirao-Rico, S., Librado, P. et al., 2017. DnaSP 6: DNA Sequence Polymorphism Analysis of Large Data Sets. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 34 (12), 3299-3302.
Sayers, E.W., Bolton, E.E., Brister, J.R., Canese, K., Chan, J. et al., 2022. Database resources of the national centre for biotechnology information. Nucleic Acids Research, 50 (D1), D20-D26.
Scacco, U., Gennari, E., Di Crescenzo, S., Fanelli, E., 2023. Looking into the prevalence of bycatch juveniles of critically endangered elasmobranchs: a case study from pelagic longline and trammel net fisheries of the Asinara Gulf (western Mediterranean). Frontiers in Marine Science, 10, 1303961.
Serena, F., 2005. Field identification guide to the sharks and rays of the Mediterranean and Black Sea. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes, FAO, Rome.
Serena, F., Mancusi, C., Barone, M., 2010. Field identification guide to the skates (Rajidae) of the Mediterranean Sea. Guidelines for data collection and analysis. Biologia Marina Mediterranea, 17 (2), 1-204.
Serena, F., Charles, R., Ellis, J.R., Johnston, G., Pacoureau, N. 2024. Rostroraja alba. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T61408A183781512. (Accessed on 04 July 2024).
Sousa, I., Baeyaert, J., Gonçalves, J.M.S., Erzini, K., 2019. Preliminary insights into the spatial ecology and movement patterns of a regionally critically endangered skate (Rostroraja alba) associated with a marine protected area, Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology, 52 (6), 283-299.
Spedicato, M.T., Massutí, E., Mérigot, B., Tserpes, G., Jadaud, A. et al., 2019. The MEDITS trawl survey specifications in an ecosystem approach to fishery management. Scientia Marina, 83 (S1), 9-20.
Thompson, J.D., Higgins, D.G., Gibson, T.J., 1994. CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position- specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic acids research, 22 (22), 4673-4680.
United Nations, 2015. Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable Development - Goal 14 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. Available at: https://sdgs.un.org/ goals/goal14. (Accessed on 08 March 2024).
Vella, A., Vella, N., Schembri, S., 2017. A molecular approach towards taxonomic identification of elasmobranch species from Maltese fisheries landings. Marine Genomics, 36, 17-23.
Villagra, D., Van Bogaert, N., Ampe, B., Walker, P., Uhlmann, S.S. 2022. Life-history traits of batoids (Superorder Batoidea) in the Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 32 (2), 473-495.
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 B: Biological Sciences, 360 (1462), 1847-1857.
Wetherbee, B.M., Cortés, E., Bizzarro, J.J., 2012. Food consumption and feeding habits. p. 239-264. In: Biology of Sharks and Their Relatives. Carrier, J., Musick, J.A., Heithaus, M.R. (Eds.), CRC Press, Boca Raton FL.
