Author:

Keywords:

atlantic croaker, ballast water, exotic species, micropogonias undulatus, north sea, scheldt estuary, fish, Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Fisheries, Marine & Freshwater Biology, Atlantic croaker, Micropogonias undulatus, North Sea, Scheldt Estuary, ATLANTIC CROAKER, FISH, 0602 Ecology, 0608 Zoology, 0704 Fisheries Sciences, 3005 Fisheries sciences, 3103 Ecology, 3109 Zoology

Abstract:

Two living specimens of the Atlantic croaker Micropogonias undulatus have been caught during recent years in Belgian waters (Southern Bight of the North Sea): one in August 1998 as a by-catch of the commercial shrimp fishery in coastal waters, another in October 2001 on a tidal flat in the brackish part of the Scheldt Estuary. These represent the first records of this north-west Atlantic species in European waters, and their occurrence is likely to be due to transportation in ship ballast water. (C) 2004 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.