Sander marinus (Cuvier, 1828)

Iftime, Alexandru & Oţel, Vasile, 2025, An annotated systematical checklist of the Romanian ichthyofauna, Zootaxa 5654 (1), pp. 1-64 : 49-50

Sander marinus (Cuvier, 1828)

A native, marine/brackish-water species possibly found in the marine waters adjacent to the Danube Delta , which area is included in its range, as such or including all of the Romanian seashore ( Haponski & Stepien 2013; Karimov 2020). Indications from fishermen as to the extremely rare presence in the sea of a darker, narrower-snouted pikeperch led Antipa (1909) to suspect that this species may occur (or had occurred) in Romanian waters, though he himself never acquired one. The species is found in the Dniepr-Bug estuary ( Roman et al. 2018) and apparently extends to the Bulgarian shores ( Vassilev & Pehlivanov 2005); though not listed by Stefanov (2007), it was filmed in Bulgarian marine waters, not far from Romania ( Kovtun 2014); therefore it may well reside in or transit the intervening Romanian marine waters, though not a single specimen was yet scientifically recorded.

ORD. CENTRARCHIFORMES

Fam. Centrarchidae

Micropterus dolomieu (Lacepede, 1802)

A non-native freshwater species, a record of which (from Covasna county) needs to be confirmed ( Iftime & Iftime 2021).

D) unwarranted/erroneous records/citations

Several more species are included in general distribution maps/species lists for the Romanian Black Sea shore: Chondrichthyes: Ord. Squatiniformes, Fam. Squatinidae : Squatina squatina (Linnaeus, 1758) ( Roux 1986) ; Ord. Myliobatiformes, Fam. Gymnuridae : Gymnura altavela (Linnaeus,1758) ( McEachran&Capapé1986) ;Osteichthyes: Ord. Scombriformes, Fam. Scombridae : Auxis rochei (Risso, 1810) ( Froese & Pauly 2025) , Euthynnus alletteratus (Rafinesque, 1810) ( Froese & Pauly 2025) ; Ord. Perciformes, Fam. Triglidae : Eutrigla gurnardus (Linnaeus, 1758) ( Hureau 1986; Cocan & MireȘan 2018); Ord. Acanthuriformes, Fam. Sciaenidae : Argyrosomus regius (Asso y del Rio, 1801) ( Chao 1986; Cocan & MireȘan 2018); Ord. Lophiiformes, Fam. Lophiidae : Lophius budegassa Spinola, 1807 ( Caruso 1986); Ord. Tetraodontiformes, Fam. Balistidae : Balistes capriscus Gmelin, 1789 [as B. carolinensis ] ( Tortonese 1986). None of these is mentioned by any Romanian author (other than Cocan & MireȘan 2018) and all are explicitely stated by Vasil’eva 2007 and Yankova et al. 2014 not to occur in Romanian waters; these are most likely unwarranted extrapolations for presence on the Romanian shore from the fact of known occurrence in the Black Sea. The same is valid for Epinephelus caninus (Valenciennes, 1843) and E. costae (Steindachner, 1878) , quoted by Froese & Pauly (2025) as present in Romania, but they are absent from even the Black Sea ( Karpova et al. 2019; Karakulak et al. 2025). At present, they cannot be included in the Romanian checklist, though their future record in Romanian waters is by no way impossible.

Other erroneous records: Ord. Salmoniformes, Fam. Salmonidae : Salvelinus namaycush (Walbaum, 1792) — included by Cocan & MireȘan 2018 on the list of Romanian fishes, quoting Bănărescu 1964, Decei 1981, Manea 1985 and Nalbant 2003, none of which mention this species as being ever introduced to Romania; Cocan & MireȘan 2018 possibly mistake mentions of lake trouts, i.e. the lake morph of Salmo trutta , for Salvelinus namaycush which is also called “lake trout” in North America; Ord. Cypriniformes, Fam. Cobitidae : Sabanejewia aurata (De Filippi, 1863) ( Cocan & MireȘan 2018; Froese & Pauly 2025);Fam. Cyprinidae : Barbus cyclolepis Heckel, 1837 ( Cocan & MireȘan 2018; Froese & Pauly 2025); Barbus borysthenicus Dybowski, 1862 , ( Moshu et al. 2006 —as “ Barbus barbus (L., 1758) / Barbus barbus borysthenicus Dybowski, 1862 ”; Bulat et al. 2013); Fam. Leuciscidae : Alburnus chalcoides (Güldenstädt, 1772) ( Cocan & MireȘan 2018; Froese & Pauly 2024), at least in some cases, most probably, as a technical artifact or misunderstanding of the taxonomical splitting process (see Kottelat & Freyhof 2007; Movchan 2009; Roman 2015 for these species and their true range); Ord. Carangiformes, Fam. Soleidae : Pegusa lascaris (Risso, 1810) ( Cocan & MireȘan 2018; Froese & Pauly 2025)—probably also as an artifact of taxonomical splitting, whereas P. nasuta applies to Pontic populations previously included in P. lascaris ( Vasil’eva 2007), though Froese & Pauly (2025) give both species as ranging into the Black Sea ; nevertheless, as discussed above, morphological data available for Romanian specimens allow them to be attributed, so far, to P. nasuta alone.

The total tally of species mentioned for Romania is of 220 species currently or lately having Romanian (reproductive) populations or at least circumstantial indications thereof, or sporadic/expanding into Romanian waters (including four species most probably now extirpated from Romania: Acipenser nudiventris , Acipenser persicus , Acipenser sturio , Thunnus thynnus ; other listed species have not been recorded in Romania for a quite long time and may be likewise be extirpated, or merely undetected—see comments above); 32 non-native species which do (did) not independently reproduce/persist, including 2 stocked alien hybrids 5; 20 potentially occurring or doubtfully recorded species; and 16 unwarantedly/erroneously claimed species.