Hi All
 
You may be interested to see this report, if you have not already -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1192763/First-moray-eel-caught-Britain-p\
ulled-Cornish-coast.html#.
 
Unfortunately it is inaccurate  - This is actually the tenth Mediterranean
Moray Muraena helena to be caught in British and Irish waters; the first was
caught on a line at Polperro in Cornwall in 1834.  (One was also found off
Ostend, Belgium in 1937.)  Also its actual weight was 3.8 kg and length 104 cm.
They are a North East Atlantic fish being found from Senegal to the English
Channel (and also in the Mediterranean).  They are not a sign of global
warming, but a warm water eel that is rare at the northern limit of its
distribution.  If climate change does continue to raise the sea temperatures
around our coasts they may become commoner.
 
My report comes from Dave Munday of the MFA Fisheries Office in Newlyn who gives
the position as  ICES area VIIh square 27E4 - approx. 49  20’N  006 30’
W.
 
The literature, most notably Wheeler, Merrett and Quigley (2004) gives three
previous Cornish records (all in the nineteenth century), one from Ostend, one
Herm and one Irish; however I have checked through the records held by the
Newlyn fisheries office and
find that a further three were landed to Newlyn in the 1990s, and Paul Gainey
reports one off Land's End in 1989.
 
regards, Doug
 Doug Herdson
Marine Fish Information Services
94 Dunstone View
Plymstock
Plymouth. PL9 8QW
Email: Douglas.Herdson@...
Telephone: +44(0)1752 405155

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]