MARINE AND FISHERY SCIENCES 34 (2): 275-281 (2021)

https://doi.org/10.47193/mafis.3422021010608

ABSTRACT. In this study we report the presence of the soft coral Verticillata castellviae at

947 m deep, off Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, which constitutes the northernmost record for

this species. The specimen was collected as a bycatch species with a troncopyramidal trap during an

experimental cruise devoted to the study of the red crab Chaceon notialis and the Patagonian lob-

sterette Thymops birsteini.

Key words: New distributional record, Primnoidae, bycatch species, cold-water corals.

Nuevo registro y extensión de la distribución del octocoral primnoideo Verticillata castellviae

en el Océano Atlántico Sudoccidental

RESUMEN. En este estudio se reporta la presencia del coral blando Verticillata castellviae en la

plataforma continental externa de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina, a 947 m de profundidad,

lo que constituye el registro más septentrional para esta especie. El ejemplar de estudio fue colecta-

do con una trampa troncopiramidal, como parte de la captura incidental, durante una campaña de

pesca experimental dedicada al estudio del cangrejo rojo Chaceon notialis y de la langosta patagó-

nica Thymops birsteini.

Palabras clave: Nuevo registro de distribución, Primnoidae, captura incidental, corales de aguas

frías.

Octocorals are a poorly known group in the marine benthic communities of

the Argentine waters in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean. Although some species

could be found in waters <100 m, the majority of the records come from

greater depths (i.e. Zamponi and Pérez 1995; Excoffon et al. 2004; Pérez and

Zamponi 2004; Portela et al. 2012; McFadden and van Ofwegen 2013;

Schejter et al. 2018, 2020a, 2020b; Pérez and Cordeiro 2020). They play

important ecological roles in the bentho-pelagic coupling (Rossi et al. 2017),

in the throphic ecology of the system (i.e. Buhl Mortensen et al. 2017), in the

blue carbon budget (i.e. Coppari et al. 2019) and as essential fish habitats (i.e.

Baillon et al. 2012), among others. They may constitute marine animal forests

and coral gardens, hosting a large and biodiverse associated fauna (i.e. De Clip-

275

*Correspondence:

schejter@inidep.edu.ar

Received: 19 April 2021

Accepted: 22 May 2021

ISSN 2683-7595 (print)

ISSN 2683-7951 (online)

https://ojs.inidep.edu.ar

Journal of the Instituto Nacional de

Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero

(INIDEP)

This work is licensed under a Creative

Commons Attribution-

NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0

International License

Marine and

Fishery Sciences

MAFIS

NOTE

New record and range extension of the primnoid octocoral Verticillata

castellviae in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean

LAURA SCHEJTER1, 2, * CECILIA MAUNA1and CARLOS D. PÉREZ3

1Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP), Paseo Victoria Ocampo N° 1, Escollera Norte, B7602HSA - Mar del

Plata, Argentina. 2Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina. 3Grupo de Pesquisa em Antozoários-

GPA, Centro Acadêmico da Vitória, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Rua Alto do Reservatório s/n, Bela Vista, Vitória de Santo Antão-

PE, Brazil. ORCID Laura Schejter https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5443-4048, Carlos D. Pérez https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0866-1183

pele et al. 2015; Schejter et al. 2020a). Additional-

ly, octocorals have been studied from a chemical

perspective, considering that new molecules and

bioactive compounds have been discovered from

several species (Rojo de Almeida et al. 2010;

Almeida et al. 2014; Patiño Cano et al. 2018).

Between July 4th and August 3rd of 2017, the

FV ‘Atlantic Express’ performed an experimental

fishing cruise devoted to the study of the red crab

Chaceon notialis R.B. Manning and Holthuis,

1989 and the Patagonian lobsterette Thymops

birsteini (Zarenkov and Semenov, 1972) at the

continental shelf edge and slope of Argentina.

Troncopyramidal traps were used as sampling

devices and placed along the shelf for a period of

about 52 h (Mauna et al. 2017). In general, trap-

ping is a common fishing practice that has low

bycatch rates and often cause minimal habitat

destruction, at least when compared to trawling or

dredging activities (Eno et al. 2001; National

Research Council 2002). However, setting and

retrieval of the traps, including dragging along the

seafloor, may cause the catch of benthic organisms

(bycatch) and can damage habitat components

such as corals, sponges, and other epifauna

(Stevens 2020). As a complementary objective dur-

ing the same cruise, samples of the bycatch species

were preserved frozen onboard and transported to

the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrol-

lo Pesquero (INIDEP) for their proper identifica-

tion. A general and preliminary list of the organ-

isms recorded as bycatch was reported by Mauna

et al. (2018). The present contribution, reports the

presence of the soft coral Verticillata castellviae

(Zapata-Guardiola, López-González and Gili,

2013), also recorded as a bycatch species, which

constitutes the northernmost record for the species.

Taxonomy

Phylum Cnidaria Hatschek, 1888

Class Anthozoa Ehrenberg, 1834

Subclass Octocorallia Haeckel, 1866

Order Alcyonacea Lamouroux, 1812

Family Primnoidae Milne Edwards, 1857

Genus Verticillata Zapata-Guardiola, López-

González and Gili, 2013

Verticillata castellviae (Zapata-Guardiola,

López-González and Gili, 2013)

(Figure 1)

Synonyms

Plumarella (Verticillata)castellviae Zapata-

Guardiola, López-González and Gili, 2013;

Schejter et al. 2020b: 224, 229.

Material examined

Two specimens collected as bycatch in a red

crab trap at 38° 27′ 00″ S, 54° 39′ 32″ W, 947 m,

on July 29th 2017 (FV ‘Atlantic Express’).

Description

Yellowish, uniplanar, pinnate colonies, with

polyps almost perpendicular to branchlet, placed

in whorls of 4-6, each polyp with eight marginal

sclerites and with a strong terminal thorn (Fig-

ure 1).

Notes

Cairns and Wirshing (2018: 11) changed the

status of Verticillata from subgenus to genus.

This species is distributed from Tierra del Fuego

to Malvinas Islands and Burdwood Bank (Zapata-

Guardiola et al. 2013). Recently, Schejter et al.

(2020b) recorded this species for the second time

after its original description from samples collect-

ed at the Marine Protected Area Namuncurá/Bur-

dwood Bank.

According to Steinman et al. (2020), our spec-

imens were collected from an area comprised

within a giant cold-water coral mound province

called ‘Northern Argentine Mound Province’

linked to a contourite depositional system that

covers at least 2,000 km2. These ecosystems are

characterized by particular conditions that

include the availability of suspended food and

sediment particles in combination with a suffi-

276 MARINE AND FISHERY SCIENCES 34 (2): 275-281 (2021)

cient bottom-current strength, keeping material in

suspension while preventing destructive erosion

and excessive sedimentation. These habitats in

the Southwest Atlantic Ocean are understudied

and they probably still host undescribed species

and a high biodiversity as already observed in the

nearby area of the Mar del Plata canyon

(Martínez et al. 2014; Ocampo et al. 2014; Risaro

et al. 2020) and in a southern submarine canyon

located at the Ameghino system (Bremec and

Schejter 2010; Schejter et al. 2014).

Considering our finding of V. castellviae off

Buenos Aires (38° 27′ 00″ S) and the previously

recorded distribution range from Tierra del Fuego

and Malvinas (Zapata Guardiola et al. 2013) to

Burdwood Bank (~ 54° S, Schejter et al. 2020b),

277

SCHEJTER ET AL.: NEW RECORD OF VERTICILLATA CASTELLVIAE IN THE SW ATLANTIC

Figure 1. Verticillata castellviae. A) General morphology of the colony. Scale bar: 6 cm. B) Detail of the branches in the colony.

C) Detail of a single polyp in the colony. Scale bar: 0.5 mm. D) Detail of the verticillate arrangement of the polyps in a

branch. Scale bar: 1 mm.

278 MARINE AND FISHERY SCIENCES 34 (2): 275-281 (2021)

Figure 2. Other bycatch species recorded during the same haul. A) Plumarella sp. Scale bar: 6 cm. B) Detail of the arrangement

of the polyps in the Plumarella sp. colony. Scale bar: 2 mm. C) Thouarella sp. settled on a dead skeleton of the coral

Bathelia candida. Scale bar: 9 cm. D) Thouarella sp., arrow shows an epibiotic comatulid crinoid. Scale bar: 10 cm. E)

B. candida. Scale bar: 6 cm. F) Fragment of an hexactinellid sponge. Scale bar: 9 cm. G) Astrotoma agassizii. Scale bar:

10 cm. H) Thouarella sp. Scale bar: 4 cm.

it is likely that this species has a continuous dis-

tribution all along the Argentine continental edge

and slope, as recorded for other octocoral species

(Portela et al. 2012; Schejter et al. 2018). This

distribution pattern is favored by the Malvinas

Current, a branch of the Circumpolar Current

flowing northward along the continental shelf of

Argentina (Piola and Gordon 1989, Combes and

Matano 2014).

Additional comments

Other organisms recorded as bycatch species at

the same place were an unidentified species of

Plumarella, some fragments of Thouarella spp.

with epibiotic crinoids, the colonial scleractinian

Bathelia candida Moseley, 1880, also used as set-

tlement substrate for other corals, and the ophi-

uroid Astrotoma agassizii Lyman, 1875. Frag-

ments of two sponge species were also recorded,

one belonging to the Class Hexactinellida and a

second specimen belonging to the Order Hap-

losclerida (Figure 2).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desen-

volvimento Científico e Tecnológico) and

FACEPE (Fundação de Amparo a Ciência e Tec-

nologia de Pernambuco) for research grants given

to CDP (CNPq/MCTI/FACEPE/PROTAX 001/

2015, 440633/20150 and APQ-0913 2.04/17).

This study was financed in part by Capes, Finance

Code 001 to CDP and PICT 2019-4233 to LS.

This is INIDEP Contribution no 2244.

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