First record of spinetail devil ray, Mobula japanica (Müller & Henle 1841) from the Gulf of Antalya

On 11 October 2019, one specimen of spinetail devilray Mobula japanica (Müller and Henle, 1841) was caught inadvertently by a commercial fisherman at a depth of approximately 25 m off the Gulf of Antalya. One specimen was examined in detail. M. japanica was recorded for the first time in the Gulf of Antalya.


Introduction
The family Mobulidae comprises of two genera: Manta Bancroft, 1829 and Mobula Rafinesque, 1810, separated by the location of the mouth; at end of snout tip in Manta, and ventral on the head and posterior of the snout tip in Mobula (Notarbartolo-di-Sciara 1987). Nine recognized species belonging to the genus Mobula is occur worldwide in tropical, subtropical and temperate waters worldwide (Couturier et al., 2012). Devil rays or mantas are very large, pelagic species and their body is lozenge-shaped with pointed tip (Golani et al. 2006;Başusta and Özbek, 2017).
M. mobular is very similar to M. japanica, which can be found circumtropically seas (Başusta and Özbek, 2017). These species have very low reproductive capacity and M. mobular Spnetail Devilray (Mobula japanica) is widely distributed in tropical to warm temperature water of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. This fish was first reported from the Tunisian coast by Capape et al. (2015). In the same area was second record made by Novira et al. (2015). Later, this fish was reported from Iskenderun Bay shore of Turkey by Sakali et al. (2016).
M. mobular was recorded from the Turkish coast by Akyüz and Artüz (1957); from the Aegean Sea by Akyol et al. (2005); from Iskenderun Bay by Yaglioglu et al. (2013) and Sakalli (2017), from the Gulf of Antalya Başusta and Özbek, (2017). This paper presents the first record of the Spinetail Devil Ray (Mobula japanica) caught from the Gulf of Antalya.

Materials and Methods
On 11 October 2019, one specimen of spinetail devilray M. japanica was caught inadvertently by a commercial fisherman at a depth of approximately 25 m off the Gulf of Antalya (Fig. 1). One sample (female) was transferred to Akdeniz University Fisheries Faculty laboratory. Specimen was measured, photographed and identified. The identification of species was made diagnostic characteristics described by Notarbartolo di Sciara (1987; 2016); Bonfil and Mohamed (2004); Capapé et al. 2015. The lengths (disc width, disc length, total length, etc.) were measured to the nearest 0.1 cm and the weight to the nearest kilogram (kg).

Results and Discussion
Morphometric measurements of one female specimen was disc width 135 cm, disc length 61 cm, total length 215 cm, tail length 154 cm, horn 13,5 cm, mouth width 15,5 cm, first gill slit width 6,5 cm, eye diameter 2 cm and weight 13 950g ( Fig. 2A). Distinctive features of Mobula japanica species whose morphometric features are given above are as follows; white spot above dorsal fin (Fig. 2B), Slit-like spiracles above margin of pectoral fin (IOTC and SPC, 2012) (Fig. 2C), tooth cavities not arranged in rows (Capapé et al. 2015) (Fig. 2D), distinctive white colouration to the raker filaments tips (CITES 2013) (Fig. 2E), very long tail equal to or longer than disc width with white tiny nodules (FAO 2014) (Fig. 2F). The meristic and morphological characters of Mobula japonica, which we detected, showed similarities with the features specified by other researchers.
Antalya Bay is located in the eastern Mediterranean ecosystem. For this reason, the eastern Mediterranean is one of the regions where lesepsian migrations are most common. It is a species of Mobula japonica that is distributed in the temperate Pacific and Indian and Atlantic Oceans. This species was first caught in the the Gulf of Iskenderun coasts of Turkey. Then, second time captured of this species in the Gulf of Antalya suggests lessepsian migration.