First occurrence of the deepwater scorpionfish Setarches guentheri (Scorpaeniformes: Setarchidae) in Cantabrian waters: a northernmost occurrence in the eastern Atlantic

The scorpionfish Setarches guentheri (Scorpaeniformes: Setarchidae) usually dwells offshore, in soft bottom deep areas at depths of about 150 to 780 m and at bottom temperature range of 5.58C–12.58C. This species has the widest distribution of any known scorpaenid, although this is a rare bathydemersal scorpaenid. Setarches guentheri has a large distribution, occurring from the Indo-West Pacific (Tanzania to South Africa, India and Sri Lanka to the Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea, north to Japan, Fiji and Hawaii, south to the Philippines, Indonesia and Western Australia), from the eastern Pacific (Chile) and from the Atlantic Ocean (in the western Atlantic, USA to Brazil, and in the eastern Atlantic). In the eastern Atlantic, it has been recorded from Morocco, Madeira and Cape Verde to South Africa and, in the Iberian Peninsula, there was only one previous record from the Algarve coast, Portugal. The present record constitutes a new extended northern limit for the distribution of S. guentheri in this area.