Revised Checklist of Fishes of Sagami Bay, Japan

Abstract

A previous checklist of the fishes of Sagami Bay, Japan, which included 1517 species belonging to 249 families (45 orders) recorded up to 2006, was revised using the following resources: fish collections of the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of National History (KPM), the fish image database in KPM and literature records. The survey revealed 1934 species belonging to 284 families (43 orders) in the study area. Many of the species newly recorded in Sagami Bay are distributed mainly in waters south of the bay, which is likely to be closely linked to the transport of fishes by the Kuroshio Current. In addition, the recent rise in seawater temperatures in and around Sagami Bay due to global warming and other factors, may have allowed normally southern fish species to overwinter in Sagami Bay, thus leading to the significant increase in the number of species recorded over a relatively short period.