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The present paper reports occurrences of six elasmobranch species previously considered as rare and/or unknown in northern Tunisian waters. Captures of sharpnose seven gill shark, Heptranchias perlo (Bonnaterre, 1788) and bluntnose six gills shark, Hexanchus griseus (Bonnaterre, 1788) showed that both spe cies although they are threatened are not totally exctincted in the area. A new record of a juvenile great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus, 1758) confirms one again that the central Mediterranean could be considered as a possible nursery area for this species. Additionally, captures of sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus (Nardo, 1827) and blackchin guitarfish Rhinobatos cemiculus E. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, 1817 are due to migrations from southern toward northern areas as a consequence of the warming of the latter areas. It may be also the case for blue shark, Prionace glauca (Linnaeus, 1758), from Algerian waters where the spe cies is rather abundant.

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Capapé C., Rafrafi -Nouira S., El Kamel-Moutalibi O., Boumaïza M., Reynaud C. 2015. First Mediterranean records of spinetail devil ray, Mobula japanica (Elasmobranchii: Rajiformes: Mobulidae). Acta Ichthyol. Piscat. 45 (2): 211-215.Abstract. Captures of 11 spinetail devil rays, Mobula japanica (Müller et Henle, 1841), from the northern coast of Tunisian (central Mediterranean) are reported in the present paper. Of these 11 specimens, fi ve specimens were described. These captures constitute the fi rst records of the species in the Tunisian waters, but also in the Mediterranean Sea, extending its distribution. This unusual occurrence of M. japanica is probably due to a migration from the eastern tropical Atlantic into the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar.