New Data on the Occurrence of Garfish Belone belone (Belonidae) in the Norwegian, Barents and the White Seas

Molecular and Phenotypic Characteristics of Short-Beaked Garfish Belone svetovidovi Collette and Parin, 1970 in a New Location, the Sea of Marmara

“…There are two species of garfish belonging to the genus Belone (garfish B. belone and short-beaked garfish B. svetovidovi) on the coastal regions of Türkiye (Bilecenoğlu et al, 2014). While the garfish B. belone is distributed over a wide area of the Atlantic Ocean from Iceland and Norway in the north, the western coast of Africa in the south and also in the Mediterranean Sea, the short-beaked garfish B. svetovidovi is distributed North-East Atlantic (Southern Ireland, Spain, Portugal) and in the Mediterranean Sea (Collette & Parin, 1986;Golani, 1996;Meriç & Altun 1999;Dolgov & Zabavnikov, 2021). These species' very similar appearance and mainly overlapped morphological characters led confusions for years (Dorman, 1987;Meriç & Altun, 1999;Dolgov & Zabavnikov, 2021).…”

“…While the garfish B. belone is distributed over a wide area of the Atlantic Ocean from Iceland and Norway in the north, the western coast of Africa in the south and also in the Mediterranean Sea, the short-beaked garfish B. svetovidovi is distributed North-East Atlantic (Southern Ireland, Spain, Portugal) and in the Mediterranean Sea (Collette & Parin, 1986;Golani, 1996;Meriç & Altun 1999;Dolgov & Zabavnikov, 2021). These species' very similar appearance and mainly overlapped morphological characters led confusions for years (Dorman, 1987;Meriç & Altun, 1999;Dolgov & Zabavnikov, 2021). B. svetovidovi differs from B. belone by having more closely spaced and smaller teeth on the jaws, by lacking vomerine teeth (mostly present in adult B. belone); and by having more numerous gill-rakers (Dorman, 1987;Meriç & Altun, 1999).…”