The black sea bass Centropristis striata is a commercially important perciform fish with a general distribution along the U.S. Atlantic coast from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Cape Canaveral, Florida, and in the Gulf of Mexico from Mobile Bay, Alabama, to Tampa Bay, Florida. Currently, black sea bass are managed as three separate stocks: one in the Gulf of Mexico and two along the U.S. Atlantic coast. Fish from the Gulf of Mexico represent a separate subspecies, C. striata melana. The Atlantic subspecies, C. striata striata, is divided into two management units (separated at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina) based on the hypothesis that this subspecies comprises two distinct populations exhibiting life history and morphometric differences. To further investigate this differentiation, we employed mitochondrial sequence data to test whether genetic differences are observed among the three managements units. The DNA sequence analysis revealed a significant amount of genetic variability partitioned among samples from the three management areas. Similar results were observed when the analyses were confined to the two Atlantic coast management units. These results support the designation of two distinct management units for black sea bass along the U.S. Atlantic coast. Received July 19, 2011; accepted February 17, 2012

The Indo-Pacific Red Lionfish was first reported off the Florida coast in 1985, following which it has spread across much of the SE USA, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. Lionfish negatively impact fish and invertebrate assemblages and abundances, thus further spread is cause for concern. To date, the fish has not been reported on the Pacific coast of North or Central America. Here we examine the possibility of ballast water transfer of lionfish from colonized areas in the Atlantic Ocean to USA ports on the Pacific coast. Over an eight-year period, we documented 27 commercial vessel-trips in which ballast water was loaded in colonized sites and later discharged untreated into Pacific coast ports in the USA. California had the highest number of discharges including San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles-Long Beach. A species distribution model suggests that the probability of lionfish establishment is low for the western USA, Colombia and Panama, low to medium for Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, medium to high for mainland Ecuador, and very high for western Mexico, Peru and the Galapagos Islands. Given the species’ intolerance of freshwater conditions, we propose that ballast water exchange be conducted in Gatún Lake, Panama for western-bound vessels carrying ‘risky’ ballast water to prevent invasion of the eastern Pacific Ocean.