JMBA2- Biodiversity Records Published online

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Moreno; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.492.5291; http://www.mba.ac.uk/simslab/publica/queiroz_etal2006.pdf

The occurrence of longfin mako, Isurus paucus is recorded for the first time in the mid-North Atlantic. Two specimens were caught, including a 215 cm stretched total length mature male, at 42º50'N 36º16'W by a commercial longline vessel targeting swordfish. The genus Isurus consists of two species, the shortfin mako Isurus oxyrinchus Rafinesque, 1810 and the longfin mako Isurus paucus Guitart, 1966 (Compagno, 2001). The latter is a pelagic, oceanic, probably circumtropical shark, reaching a maximum size of 417 cm total length (Compagno, 1984, 2001). This species is apparently common in the western Atlantic where it was described for the first time (Garrick, 1967; Dodrill & Gilmore, 1979). The capture of a large female south of Panama City, FL reported by Killam & Parsons (1986), extended this species known distribution into the Gulf of Mexico. Later, Moreno & Morón (1992) confirmed the presence of longfin mako sharks in waters off the north-west African coast and recorded them for the first time off the Iberian Penin-sula coast. In September 2005, two specimens of longfin mako were caught north-west of the Azores (100x100 nm area centered at 42º50'N 36º16'W) on swordfish longlines (Figure 1). Baited hooks were set at a depth between 50 and 100 m over an average water depth of 4000 metres. Night time sea surface temperature (SST) data averaged over eight days (31 August to 7 September) from MODIS/ Terra were obtained through the online PO.DAAC Ocean ESIP Tool (POET –