Özet:

The goldband goatfish, Upeneus moluccensis (Bleeker, 1855), is an Indo-West Pacific species, which has been reported as a Lessepsian migrant from the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The species has expanded its distribution range in the Mediterranean; individuals have been recorded from Israel, Lebanon, Libya, the south coast of Turkey, and the Aegean Sea. The aim of this study was to report the presence of U. moluccensis in the Sea of Marmara. The history of the Mediterranean records and the presence in the Sea of Marmara are discussed. A specimen of Upeneus moluccensis was collected with a beam trawl at 58 m depth, off Aksaz, the western Sea of Marmara during the MAREM (Marmara Environmental Monitoring) survey, on 21 June 2017. The fish (a female) was subjected to standard descriptive procedures and subsequently deposited in the collection of the MAREM (Marmara Environmental Monitoring) project, with the catalogue number LAR-182. Upeneus moluccensis is recorded for the first time from the Sea of Marmara, which expands its distributional range westward in the Mediterranean Sea (Aegean Sea). This new distribution record of Upeneus moluccensis also represents the global northernmost record of the species. The previous northernmost record was from 38deg;53prime;N in the northern Aegean Sea, and from about 35deg;12prime;N in its natural range (southern Japan).

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