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Occurrence of the bigeye thresher shark, Alopias superciliosus (Lowe, 1841)

(Elasmobranchii, Alopiidae) in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico

Article in Latin American Journal of Aquatic Research · July 2021

DOI: 10.3856/vol49-issue3-fulltext-2629

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526 American Journal of Aquatic Research, 49(3): 526-530, 2021
Latin American Journal of Aquatic Research
DOI: 10.3856/vol49-issue3-fulltext-2629

Short Communication

Occurrence of the bigeye thresher shark, Alopias superciliosus

(Lowe, 1841) (Elasmobranchii, Alopiidae) in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico

Luis Fernando Del Moral-Flores1 , Jorge Pérez-Díaz1

Tao Hernández-Arellano1,2 & Eduardo López-Segovia1,3
1
Laboratorio de Zoología, Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Tlalnepantla, Estado de México, México
2
KAI Ocean Labs, 5799 Cunard Street, Nova Scotia B3K 1C9, Canada
3
Posgrado en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Coyoacán, Ciudad de México, México
Corresponding author: Luis Fernando Del Moral-Flores ([email protected])

ABSTRACT. The bigeye thresher shark Alopias supeciliosus is a large epipelagic and mesopelagic species, and
it has a wide distribution in the Atlantic. However, its record in the Gulf of Mexico is sporadic. A single adult
female of A. superciliosus, measuring 360 cm total length and about weight 165 kg, was caught by artisanal
fishers in Salinas Roca Partida, Veracruz, Mexico, on July 14, 2020. This study reports the first occurrence of
this species in the southwestern of the Gulf of Mexico, which extends its geographical distribution in Mexico.
Keywords: Alopias superciliosus; Lamniformes; Chondrichthyes; new record; pelagic sharks; western Atlantic

The knowledge of the biology and ecology of pelagic (Compagno 2002, Coelho et al. 2015). They are
sharks is relatively minor compared to coastal species aplacental viviparous species with intrauterine
due to the difficulty of studying widely distributed and oophagy; low fecundity, on average two embryos per
highly vagile species and with sporadic records within litter, although four embryos have been reported, the
catches (Pikitch et al. 2008). One of these groups is gestation period is 12 months (Moreno & Morón 1992,
called fox sharks or sea foxes; they belong to the Chen et al. 1997, Young et al. 2016) and in the adult
Alopiidae family. They are characterized by having state they can reach 17 years in male and up to 22 years
long caudal fins, notable extension of the dorsal lobe of in females (Fernandez-Carvalho et al. 2011). It is a
the caudal fin. Three species are recognized as common specialist predator, feeding on various teleost fish,
thresher (Alopias vulpinus), pelagic thresher (A. cephalopods, and crustaceans (Polo-Silva et al. 2007).
pelagicus), and bigeye thresher (A. superciliosus) and It is considered a species with Pan-Atlantic
are often caught in longline fisheries and incidentally in distribution, the range of known distribution in the
fishing nets (Compagno 2002, Castro 2011). western Atlantic from New York to northern Argentina
The bigeye thresher shark, Alopias superciliosus (Fernandez-Carvalho et al. 2015), including Florida,
(Lowe, 1840), is a large shark with a maximum total Bahamas, Cuba, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico
length of approximately 460 cm, distributed worldwide (Compagno 2002, Castro 2011). However, the presence
in tropical and temperate seas (Young et al. 2016). It is inside the Gulf of Mexico is barely documented. The
an epipelagic, neritic and epibenthic species found in first record of A. superciliosus in the Gulf of Mexico
coastal waters and high seas; its bathymetric range was reported by Branstetter & McEachran (1983),
reaches 900 m depth with daily vertical migration based on a female captured in north Texas at a closet

_________________
Corresponding editor: Leonardo Abitia
 Alopias superciliosus in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico 527

Figure 1. Female bigeye thresher shark Alopias superciliosus, 360 cm total length, caught in the southwestern Gulf of
Mexico. a) Lateral view, b) lateral view of the head, c) oral view.

depth of 400 m and an adult male in south Texas, both sent to the “La Nueva Viga” market for its commer-
by commercial longline. Later, its presence was cialization. Several sharks and rays have been
recorded in the northern parts of the Gulf of Mexico, registered in this market from both coasts of Mexico
and because of this, it is considered one of the rarest (Ballesteros-Hernández et al. 2019).
oceanic shark species found in this sea (Russell 1993,
The characteristics of this specimen were consistent
Baum & Myers 2004). On the Mexican coast of the
with the description of A. superciliosus reported in the
Gulf of Mexico, the bigeye thresher shark has been
literature (Gruber & Compagno 1981, Compagno
mentioned. However, there are no signs of its presence
2002). The following characters recognized the species:
(Castillo-Géniz et al. 1998) and sight in Los Tuxtlas
(Schaldach et al. 1997). Nevertheless, this has no valid lateral grooves above the branchial region; bulbous
evidence even when there is a record near the snout, large eye, extend to the dorsal part of the head;
continental shelf of Yucatan, Mexico (Bonfil 1997, Del the first dorsal fin is positioned more posterior on the
Moral-Flores et al. 2015). This work aims to report its back, with the midpoint of its base much closer to the
presence and morphometric data in the southwest Gulf bases pelvic fin; the dorsal extension of the caudal fin
of Mexico and the Mexican coast. is similar to the precaudal length; pectoral fins are
broadly pointed. The coloration of the dorsal-lateral
An adult of A. superciliosus was captured
region is brownish gray and in the ventral area whitish
incidentally by a fisher, on July 15, 2020, by a long line
with grayish tones.
(2000 m in length and 200 hooks of number 6) at a
depth of 30 m, approximately 5 km offshore of the The lack of specific studies and the consideration of
locality of the Salina Roca Partida, located at the historical records of pelagic sharks, such as the
18°42’17.3”N, 95°14’19.9”W. The specimen, a female, bigeye thresher shark, have generated a dilemma about
their presence, native or exotic, in different seas
measured 370 cm in total length (TL) and weighed 150
(Corsini-Foka & Sioulas 2009). This study provides the
kg without organs (Fig. 1). The jaw, pectoral fins and
first record of A. superciliosus and information about
caudal dorsal lobe are deposited in the Colección his distribution on the Mexican coast of the Gulf of
Ictiológica de la FES-Iztacala (CIFI-1414), Mexico. Mexico. The new records of other oceanic species of
The taxonomic determination was made using sharks may be correlated with the increase in studies
specialized keys from the area (Castro 2011) and the and observations in the area. However, it may also be
morphometry of the organism (Table 1). Because the considered an expansion of their distribution due to the
specimen had no viscera, it was impossible to emptiness of ecological niches by others species that
determine exactly the degree of sexual maturity. have suffered a population decline (Burges et al. 2005).
According to the studies, the size of the first maturity Likewise, we must point special attention must be
reaches between 332 to 350 cm TL and 202 to 208.6 cm considered when reporting their common names, as
fork length (Moreno & Morón 1992, Chen et al. 1997, they can confuse and underestimate specific richness.
Fernandez Carvalho et al. 2015), so it could be In the Gulf of Mexico, it has been recorded that A.
considered a mature female and over 12 years old. superciliosus generally resides in shallower depths at
Later, it was processed by the fishing cooperative and night and greater depths during the day (Weng & Block
528 Latin American Journal of Aquatic Research

Table 1. Morphometric data of the adult bigeye thresher shark Alopias superciliosus caught in the southwestern Gulf of
Mexico. TL: total length.

Measurements Length (cm) Proportion of TL (%)

Total length 356
Fork length 271 76.1
Snout to 1rs branchial 45 12.6
Snout to 2 branchial 48 13.5
Snout to 3 branchial 51 14.3
Snout to 4 branchial 55 15.4
Snout to 5 branchial 57 16.0
Eye length 7 2.0
Predorsal length 69 19.4
Prepectoral length 52 14.6
Pectoral-fin anterior margin 75 21.1
Pectoral-fin posterior margin 73.5 20.6
Pectoral-fin inner margin 11 3.1
Pelvic-fin anterior margin 35.7 10.0
Pelvic-fin posterior margin 38.5 10.8
Pelvic-fin inner margin 7.5 2.1
Anal-fin anterior margin 6 1.7
Anal-fin posterior margin 8 2.2
Anal-fin inner margin 7 2.0
First dorsal-fin anterior margin 32 9.0
First dorsal-fin posterior margin 28.5 8.0
First dorsal-fin inner margin 7.5 2.1
Second dorsal-fin anterior margin 4 1.1
Second dorsal-fin posterior margin 6.5 1.8
Second dorsal-fin inner margin 7 2.0
Upper lobe of the caudal-fin dorsal margin 106.5 29.9
Lower lobe of the caudal-fin ventral margin 28 7.9

2004). These daily movements and the migratory ones ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

may be related to food (Polo-Silva et al. 2007).
Although slight evidence of declining populations of We thank the Salinas Roca Partida fishermen,
fox sharks in the western Atlantic, including the Gulf especially Gregorio Pio Campo and Martín Echeverría
of Mexico and the Caribbean, their records have been Hernández for providing the specimen of this
sparse, making it impossible to understand better their contribution, also to biology student A.A. Jiménez-
populations (Cortes et al. 2007). Hernández for your help in the fieldwork. This work
was supported by UNAM-PAPIIT IA207820. We
The species is listed as vulnerable in the appreciate the support of SNI-CONACyT.
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
red list (Rigby et al. 2019). Due to the few records in
the region, the population status in the Gulf of Mexico REFERENCES
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