First valid record of Gymnothorax vicinus (pisces: Muraenidae) for macaronesian ecoregion (Canary Islands): A process of tropicalization?

Resumo

We herein present the occurrence of the moray eel Gymnothorax vicinus (Castelnau, 1855) in the Canary Islands, highlighting that these truly are the first valid records for Macaronesia, since previous existing records for the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands were caused by misidentification. The appearance of this tropical species in 2008 in the island of El Hierro —the one with the warmer waters in the entire Macaronesian ecoregion— initially leads to thinking of a connection with global warming (tropicalization). Nevertheless, information obtained from local fishermen speaks of a indigenous thermophilic species in its north limit of distribution, with a very small populations. Fishermen have captured specimens only intermittently for many years now. Its recent detection in an area where littoral fish are widely studied has probably been caused by the increasingly favourable environmental conditions, which has triggered an increase in its population. This process had already been observed in the Canarias amongst other thermophilic fish species. Results of the analysis of data regarding their subsequent catch in Tenerife leads to the same conclusion