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The marine waters around the Azores archipelago have been studied for quite a long time. Deeper areas, however, were historically poorly accessible and only now previously unreported species are recorded regularly. Our monitoring efforts of the Azorean ichthyofauna have recently revealed two cases of indirect evidence of the presence of a cookiecutter shark ( Isistius sp.). The evidence, documented photographically, was in the form of explicit bite marks on two dolphins representing two separate species: the Atlantic spotted dolphin, Stenella frontalis (Cuvier, 1829) and the short-beaked common dolphin, Delphinus delphis Linnaeus, 1758. The two dolphins swam close to Terceira Island. No specimens have yet been collected. The shape, and size of the wounds observed suggest that they were inflicted by a cookiecutter shark. The fresh state of the injuries suggests they were sustained recently in the proximity of the Azores.

Taxonomic and geographic misattributions in biodiversity inventories remain a pressing issue in biogeographical research, particularly in regions with overlapping or similar place names. The Republic of Cabo Verde (also known as Cabo Verde Islands) and the Cape Verde Peninsula (Senegal) exemplify this challenge, where historical and recent studies have struggled to provide accurate species distributions due to unverified, erroneous and ambiguous records. This underscores the necessity of comprehensive, reliable datasets to delineate species occurrences across these distinct geographic areas. This study provides a rigorously verified inventory of coastal fish species occurring within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cabo Verde, focusing on depths between 0 and 200 metres. By delineating the faunal composition specific to Cabo Verde, this work addresses the recurrent confusion with species lists referencing the Cape Verde Peninsula (Senegal). A total of 393 species, distributed among 125 families and 40 orders, is documented, offering an invaluable resource for refining biodiversity assessments and providing information forconservation strategies in this biogeographically unique region. Two species, Thalassoma newtoni (Osório, 1891) and Diodon eydouxii Brisout de Barneville, 1846, are reported for the first time from Cabo Verde in this paper.

Describing the trophic structure and interactions of demersal elasmobranch assemblages is fundamental to understanding food web dynamics and developing ecosystem-based management approaches. Stomach content analysis (SCA) and stable isotope ratios (SIA) of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) from muscle were used to examine the dietary habits and intra- and interspecific trophic ecology of three sympatric batoid species (Dasyatis pastinaca, Raja clavata, and Raja maderensis) from the Azores, Northeast Atlantic. Data were analyzed with respect to sex and maturity stages. SCA showed that D. pastinaca feeds mostly on crustaceans, whereas R. clavata and R. maderensis prey almost exclusively on teleosts, but not on the same species. Dasyatis pastinaca displayed higher δ13C and lower δ15N values compared to R. clavata and R. maderensis. Trophic niche breadth was variable, D. pastinaca and R. clavata had the broadest and the narrowest trophic breadth, respectively. Relative trophic position categorized D. pastinaca as a mesopredator, while R. clavata and R. maderensis occupied higher trophic positions. With size, R. clavata and R. maderensis shifted from small prey such as crustaceans to larger prey such as teleosts, and they also exhibited significant increases in δ15N with size. Dietary and isotopic overlap was overall low among species, but it was higher between R. clavata and R. maderensis, suggesting more similarity in diet and habitat use between them than with D. pastinaca. This study depicts trophic interactions and functional roles of three co-existing batoid species in the Azorean food webs. In addition to presenting new information on the trophic ecology of D. pastinaca and R. clavata, the present study provides, to our knowledge, the first description of the diet composition and trophic level of the Macaronesian endemic batoid R. maderensis.

The last Pinniped species update was in 2010, as part of the list of the terrestrial and marine biota from the Azores. This list includes a chapter dedicated to marine mammals, based on previously published bibliography. No new species were added since that list was publlished. However, there were new occurrences since the last update.

The Atlantic Goliath Grouper Epinephelus itajara (Lichtenstein, 1822) occurs on both sides of the Atlantic, from the Carolinas (USA) to Brazil in the western Atlantic and historically from North Senegal to North Angola off of West Africa in the eastern Atlantic. While there are relatively good data on their distribution in the western Atlantic, confirmed occurrences, population status, fishing reports, and trade data are almost non-existent for West Africa. Part of the problem is that tropical West African countries largely lack the wherewithal to fund the research needed to evaluate this species, nor do they have laws, management plans, or viable enforcement measures that might lead to effective population recovery or protection for essential juvenile mangrove habitats. Given the lack of published studies on this species in West Africa, the primary objectives of this paper are (1) to describe all known historical and current anecdotal information available on this species and (2) to encourage the increased monitoring of habitats where viable populations might still occur (i.e., mangroves, oil rigs, and oil platforms).

Six species of marine turtles occur in the Azores Archipelago. The loggerhead, Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758), is by far the most common species and is being constantly monitored and tagged by a joint project between the University of the Azores and the University of Florida since 1989. With the implementation of the tuna fishery observers (for dolphin safe seals), an increment of sea turtle reports has been verified as expected. The leather back turtle, Dermochelys coriacea (Vandelli, 1761) is the second most observed species in the Azores' EEZ, a fact probably also linked to the tuna fishery observation programme. All other species are occasional/vagrant albeit the green turtle, Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758) is more commonly seen than the others. Historically, sea turtles were occasionally taken for food in specific fishing villages and ports. Since 1986, sea turtles, as well as all marine mammals, are fully protected in the Azores although human-related activities (e.g. plastics, discarded fishing gear) do generate serious injuries and deaths. In this paper, we update sea turtle species' checklist for the Azores and give detailed geographic coordinates on their known occurrences.

Tapping tasks have been investigated throughout the years, with variations in features such as the complexity of the task, the use of one or both hands, the employ of auditory or visual stimuli, and the characteristics of the subjects. The evaluation of lateral asymmetries in tapping tasks in children offers an insight into the structure of rhythmic movements and handedness at early stages of development. The current study aims to investigate the ability of children (aged six and seven years-old) to maintain a rhythm, in a bimanual tapping task at two different target frequencies, as well as the manual asymmetries displayed white doing so. The analyzed data in this work are the series of the time intervals between successive taps. We suggest several profiles of behavior, regarding the overall performance of children in both tempo conditions. We also propose a new method of quantifying the variability of the performance and the asymmetry of the hands, based on ellipses placed on scatter plots of the non-dominant-dominant series versus the dominant-non-dominant series. We then use running correlations to identify changes of coordination tendencies overtime. The main results show that variability is larger in the task with the longer target interval. Furthermore, most children evidence lateral asymmetries, but in general they show the capacity to maintain the mean of consecutive intertap intervals of both hands close to the target interval. Finally, we try to interpret our findings in the light of existing models and timing modes.

Courtship and spawning behaviors of coral reef fishes are very complex, and sufficient sampling effort and proper methods are required to draw informed conclusions on their mating systems that are grounded in contemporary theories of mate choice and sexual selection. We reviewed the recent study by Karkarey et al. (BMC Ecol 17:10, 2017 ) on the spawning behavior of Squaretail coralgrouper ( Plectropomus areolatus ) from India and found no evidence to support their findings of alternative reproductive tactics, unique school-spawning involving a single male with multiple females, or inverse size-assortment. The study lacks scientific credibility due to a lack of rigor in the methodology used, misinterpretation of observed behaviors, misinterpretation of the literature, and insufficient data. Their approach led the authors to produce spurious results and profound, invalid conclusions that violate the most basic assumptions of mate choice and sexual selection theory as applied to mating systems in marine fishes.

Several lists of marine fish from Azores have been published in the past. Most of those publications are difficult to access on line and several were not published in peer-reviewed journals. This checklist updates all the chondrichthyan records for the Azores Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), according to the most recent taxonomic classification of cartilaginous fish, as well as providing information on the conservation status for all species. We also present recent literature data on rare species and recent records for Azores. This is the first comprehensive list of cartilaginous fishes from Azores to be published in the GBIF database.

Since the first published comprehensive checklist of Azorean fishes - covering the whole Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) region - several new records have been published and an updated checklist published in 2010. This new dataset covers all confirmed species of actinopterygians for the Azorean EEZ. In this update, we made corrections to the previous checklists, updated the taxonomy according to the most recent bibliography and added two new species to the Azorean Actinopterygii checklist.