RESEARCH ARTICLE

New and recent records of fishes from the Mariana Islands, western Pacific Ocean

Robert F. Myers, David R. Burdick, Bruce C. Mundy, Steven J. Lindfield, Brent Tibbatts & Terry J. Donaldson

The most recent checklist of fishes of the Mariana Islands lists 1,106 species including 1,020 that are inshore or epipelagic, the vast majority of which inhabit coral reefs. Included in the list are 97 species indicated as new records without further comment other than to identify the basis of the record as an examined or collected specimen (21), photograph (57), or reliable sighting (16), as well as at least 16 additional species identified only to genus, 13 of which have since been described as new. In light of a growing body of research that extends the occurrences of many shore fishes to depths below 300 m, as well as other species of shore fish lineages that may occur exclusively below the mesophotic zone, we expand our use of the terms reef fishes, inshore fishes, or shore fishes to include the rariphotic zone as well as even deeper-dwelling species that inhabit these zones at higher latitudes. Based on this, we include at least 117 additional species that have recently been discovered in the Mariana Islands that occur, or are likely to occur, at depths of approximately 500 m or less. The vast majority of these records, including 72 of those previously listed and 108 of those more recently identified here, are based only on photographs. Some of these have been posted online, with or without comment on their significance, on the website guamreeflife.com or by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean Exploration, but many have not. Here, we consolidate into a single publication, photographs and other information that represent new records of inshore and epipelagic fishes, or that validate previously documented occurrences within the Mariana Islands and associated banks and seamounts. .

CITATION:

Myers, R.F., Burdick, D.R., Mundy, B.C., Lindfield, S.J., Tibbatts, B. & Donaldson, T.J. (2025) New and recent records of fishes from the Mariana Islands, western Pacific Ocean. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 42, 15-90.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14750902

publication date: 12 February 2025