Distribution of the gilthead seabream, Sparus aurata Linnaeus, 1758 (Perciformes) in waters of Ukraine

Abstract

The gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata Linnaeus, 1758) is distributed in the East Atlantics from the British Isles to Senegal, the Canary Islands, and Cape Verde being also common in the Mediterranean Basin. In the Black Sea, the species was first recorded in 1933 along the shore near Romania. Currently, the species occurs here in coastal waters of Ukraine, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, and Georgia. In waters of Ukraine, the gilthead seabream was first recorded in 1999 at the mouth of Balaklava Bay. In the northwest part of the Black Sea, the species was first recorded in 2004 in the Dnipro-Bug Estuary. The species was recorded the most frequently in coastal waters of the southern part of the Crimean Peninsula, from Sevastopol to Cape Aya, and in Yahorlyk and Tendra Bays in the northern part of the Black Sea. According to the fish collection of the National Museum of Natural History, NAS of Ukraine and literature sources, the gilthead seabream also occurs in the seaside along the Danube Delta (mouth Skhidne), in the southeast part of the Sea of Azov, and in the Dnipro-Bug Estuary. The specimen caught on 8.10.2008 near mouth Skhidne and a female caught in the Dnipro-Bug Estuary on 23.11.2018 are deposited in the fish collection of NMNH NAS of Ukraine (No. 8741 and No. 10435, respectively). A brief morphological description of the latter specimen is presented, including 6 meristic and 20 plastic characters, colouration, and physiological state. The gilthead seabream can be considered as partly acclimatized species of the Black Sea, although data on its spawning here are absent. The increase in the number of the species in the Azov–Black Sea Basin might indicate that the gilthead seabream entered the Black Sea independently through the Bosporus (process of “mediterranezation”), although simultaneous accidental release of specimens into the sea when cultivated as an object of mariculture cannot be excluded. In particular, the gilthead seabream is cultivated in coastal waters of Turkey.

Keywords

• gilthead seabream
• sparus aurata
• northern black sea
• distribution
• morphology