Occurrence of the lesser spotted dogfish, Scyliorhinus canicula Linnaeus 1758, in the international waters of Mersin Bay, Turkey

Abstract

Eighty-five specimens of the lesser spotted dogfish, Scyliorhinus canicula Linnaeus, 1758, was caught by a bottom trawl in the international waters of the Mersin Bay in May 2018. Some of the caught individuals were preserved in 4% formalin and was deposited in the Museum of the Systematic, Faculty of Fisheries, Mersin University, (catalogue number: MEUFC-18-11-079). The depth of sampling area is between 274 and 641 m. A total of 13 trawling operations were carried out. The total number of caught individuals was 85 and on average 5 individuals were caught in each operation. The other cartilaginous fishes caught apart from S. canicula were Galeus melastomus (1 individual), Squalus acanthias (4 individuals), Etmopterus spinax (11 individuals) and S. canicula made up 84.16% of all cartilaginous fishes which were caught.

Keywords

• lesser spotted dogfish
• scyliorhinus canicula
• mersin bay
• north levant sea