The presence of enigmatic coral has been documented in Maltese harbours, where sizable colonies were observed on jetties, by researchers from the Marine Ecology Research Group at the Department of Biology of the University of Malta.

The University said that the Mediterranean Sea is notorious for invasion by non-native biota, this is resulting in an ever-increasing number of alien species recorded from this sea, including in Maltese waters.

“When a new species is recorded, it is not always due to a recent introduction: many species are small and inconspicuous, and therefore may have been present for a long while but simply went unnoticed.

“However it is less likely to happen with large colourful species such as corals, added the University, “which are more striking and hence more readily detected, making the story of Oculina patagonica all the more remarkable.”

For a few decades no living individuals of this species could be found. Fast forward to 1966, and a living specimen was finally recorded… but not from Argentina or anywhere close!
The University said that the living individual was found in Savona Harbour, Italy, and since then the coral has been observed in several other places in the Mediterranean, including Spain, France, Algeria, Tunisia, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and Israel.

It added that, oculina patagonica is a large stony coral, colonies of which can reach more than a meter in diameter. As its name suggests, it was first described from Argentina (SW Atlantic); this was back in 1908 and the original description was based on fossil specimens. “The origin of this coral in the Mediterranean remains enigmatic.”

“No fossils of the species are known from the Mediterranean, which has been taken to indicate that it is not native in the area and must have been introduced from somewhere else,” said the University.

It remarked that, at the same time, no living individuals are known from anywhere outside the Mediterranean, and recent genetic analysis suggested that it may have been present in this sea for much longer than previously thought.”

The situation is clearer, in the case of Malta however. “Given the number of snorkelers, divers and other sea users in our seas, a large, yellow coral is unlikely to have gone unnoticed if it were present here for a long time, which, together with the fact that it was discovered from artificial substrata in harbours, points to a recent introduction,” said the University.

The Maltese researchers said that they are actively monitoring its status in Maltese waters, given that this coral seems to be acting invasively elsewhere in the Mediterranean,.

The Marine Ecology Research Group welcomes reports of any unusual or new marine organisms. Please contact the Group Leader, Prof. Patrick J. Schembri, at the Department of Biology, University of Malta on +356 2340 2272.

Photos: The stony coral Oculina patagonica, recorded for the first time from Malta in 2017; the individual polyps are ca 3-4 mm in diameter. (Photo credit: Julian Evans © 2017)

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