The invasive silver-cheeked toadfish, Lagocephalus sceleratus (Gmelin, 1789) appeared in the Sea of Marmara after more than a decade: A call for awareness

Abstract

This study presents a new locality record of poisonous pufferfish, Lagocephalus sceleratus (Gmelin, 1789), one of the 18 worst invader fish species identified globally by IUCN, from the Sea of Marmara caught by a commercial purse seine fishing vessel while fishing anchovy on 22 February 2021. Previously, this invasive species was first recorded at the Gelibolu peninsula in the Sea of Marmara between September 2007 and October 2008. Lagocephalus sceleratus recorded in this study is larger in size with 142 mm total length than previous records (126 mm in 2007; 95 mm in 2008) for the Sea of Marmara. The presently reported record represents the first documented occurrence of this species in the Erdek Bay of the Sea of Marmara and the third documented record for the entire Sea of Marmara.