Observations document the presence of yellowbar angelfish in Mediterranean waters, suggesting its entry via the Suez Canal.
We report the first sighting of the yellowbar angelfish Pomacanthus maculosus (Forsskål, 1775) (Teleostei, Pomacanthidae) in Greece. We observed a young adult multiple times in the summer of 2025 over the course of 10 weeks on a rocky pinnacle on the island of Crete. Identification was based on visual underwater observations and analysis of video material. P. maculosus is a coral reef fish native to the western Indian Ocean. We suggest that the individual reached the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, possibly aided by the intense ship traffic around our study location.
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Bottacini et al. (2026) studied this question.
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