Short communication Updated distribution range of longfin mako Isurus paucus (Lamniformes: Lamnidae) in the North Atlantic By G. Mucientes 1,2 , R. Ba~ n on 1,3 and N. Queiroz 4,5 1 IIM-CSIC, Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas, Vigo, Spain; 2 CETMAR, Centro Tecnol  ogico del Mar, Vigo, Spain; 3 Servizo de Planificaci  on, Direcci  on Xeral de Desenvolvemento Pesqueiro, Conseller  ıa do Mar e Medio Rural, Xunta de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; 4 CIBIO, Centro de Investigac ß ~ ao em Biodiversidade e Recursos Gen eticos, Vair ~ ao, Portugal; 5 MBA, The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Plymouth, UK Introduction The mackerel sharks, family Lamnidae, are composed of three genera and five species living in tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans (Nelson, 2006). The genus Isurus Rafinesque, 1810 is cosmopolitan and represents two species, the shortfin Isurus oxyrinchus Rafinesque, 1810 and longfin mako sharks Isurus paucus Guitart Manday, 1966 (Compagno, 2001). Widely scattered records suggest that the longfin mako shark, I. paucus, has a worldwide distribution in tropical and warm-temperate waters of Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans (Compagno, 2001). However, current longfin mako records are sporadic and the complete distribution remains unclear (Reardon et al., 2006). This is in part due to the morphological confusion with the more common shortfin mako I. oxyrinchus (Compagno, 2001). The known Atlantic distribution is limited mainly to shelf areas and it is poorly known in oceanic areas. In the western Atlantic, it was reported by Garrick (1967) and Dodrill and Gilmore (1979), in the Gulf of Mexico (Killam and Parsons, 1986; Wakida-Kusunoki and Anda-Fuente, 2012), Venezuela (Cervig on, 2005) and South Brazil (Amorim et al., 1998). In the eastern Atlantic, it is known off Guinea, Ghana and the Cape Verde Islands (Compagno, 1984) on the northwestern African coast and off the Iberian Peninsula (Moreno and Moron, 1992). Recently, Queiroz et al. (2008) recorded two sharks in the mid-North Atlantic, northwest of the Azores islands. Due to its rarity, little is known of the longfin mako life history. The smallest sexually mature female recorded to date measured 245 cm in total length (TL), and the smallest mature male 229 cm TL. I. paucus is an aplacental vivipa- rous species with oophagy to nourish embryos; litters of 2–8 young have been reported, each measuring 97–120 cm (Gilmore, 1993; Compagno, 2001). Subpopulation structure is unknown, but it is possible that Atlantic and Indo-Pacific populations may be isolated (Reardon et al., 2006). Materials and methods Catch data were collected from two Spanish longline vessels targeting swordfish Xiphias gladius, I. oxyrinchus and blue Fig. 1. Details of two Isurus paucus specimens caught by commercial longline U.S. Copyright Clearance Centre Code Statement: 0175-8659/2013/2704–1163$15.00/0 J. Appl. Ichthyol. 29 (2013), 1163–1165 © 2013 Blackwell Verlag GmbH ISSN 0175–8659 Received: November 14, 2012 Accepted: February 11, 2013 doi: 10.1111/jai.12203 Applied Ichthyology Journal of