9.1 Historical Exploration of Habitats and Their Associated
Benthic Communities in the Alboran Sea
The Alboran Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar represent an area of strategic and
scientific interest from many points of view and have been the subject of numerous
geological, hydrological and fishery resources studies. A detailed knowledge of their
benthic marine biota came rather late, mostly starting in the late twentieth century.
Early reports include a short note on Alboran Island by Richard and Neuville (1897),
recording there for the first time the occurrence of the North Atlantic gastropod
Littorina saxatilis, the first record of the limpet Patella ferruginea in Chafarinas
Islands by Pallary (1920) and lists of decapods from the coasts of Melilla and Málaga
by Miranda and Rivera (1919, 1921) and of fishes from Mediterranean coasts of
Morocco by de Buen (1912).
At present, a large amount of information of extraordinary biogeographical
interest has been secured on the marine biota, but it is scattered in many publications,
reports or doctoral thesis, usually focused on specific taxonomic groups or particular
areas. It would be tedious to detail all of them, but hereafter we provide some hints
on the major efforts and sources.
9.1.1 Ship-Based Exploration
The great deep-sea explorations of the nineteenth century completely ignored the
Alboran Sea. Closest came HMS “Porcupine” (1870) that sampled in detail western
Portugal and the Ibero-Moroccan Gulf and then sailed East to explore the Sicilian
Channel and the French research vessel “Talisman” (1883), which made a very
thorough survey along the Atlantic coasts of Portugal, Spain and Morocco but did
not enter the Mediterranean.
In the mid-twentieth century, Jacques Cousteau’s celebrated ship “Calypso” was
repeatedly chartered by the French government for scientific cruises, one of them in
the Ibero-Moroccan Gulf and the Alboran Sea in 1958. Few results were published
(e.g. Pérès 1959 for Tunicates and Bellan 1959 for Polychaetes), but this was the
occasion for divers to make the first encounter with the Laminaria forests (Cousteau
and Dugan 1963).
The French cruise “Polymede II” (April–May 1972) collected 15 benthic samples
along the Alboran Sea, at depths between 80 and 1000 m, and some of this material
L. Sánchez-Tocino
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
e-mail: lstocino@ugr.es
J. Templado (*)
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
e-mail: templado@mncn.csic.es
286
J. L. Rueda et al.
Benthic Communities in the Alboran Sea
The Alboran Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar represent an area of strategic and
scientific interest from many points of view and have been the subject of numerous
geological, hydrological and fishery resources studies. A detailed knowledge of their
benthic marine biota came rather late, mostly starting in the late twentieth century.
Early reports include a short note on Alboran Island by Richard and Neuville (1897),
recording there for the first time the occurrence of the North Atlantic gastropod
Littorina saxatilis, the first record of the limpet Patella ferruginea in Chafarinas
Islands by Pallary (1920) and lists of decapods from the coasts of Melilla and Málaga
by Miranda and Rivera (1919, 1921) and of fishes from Mediterranean coasts of
Morocco by de Buen (1912).
At present, a large amount of information of extraordinary biogeographical
interest has been secured on the marine biota, but it is scattered in many publications,
reports or doctoral thesis, usually focused on specific taxonomic groups or particular
areas. It would be tedious to detail all of them, but hereafter we provide some hints
on the major efforts and sources.
9.1.1 Ship-Based Exploration
The great deep-sea explorations of the nineteenth century completely ignored the
Alboran Sea. Closest came HMS “Porcupine” (1870) that sampled in detail western
Portugal and the Ibero-Moroccan Gulf and then sailed East to explore the Sicilian
Channel and the French research vessel “Talisman” (1883), which made a very
thorough survey along the Atlantic coasts of Portugal, Spain and Morocco but did
not enter the Mediterranean.
In the mid-twentieth century, Jacques Cousteau’s celebrated ship “Calypso” was
repeatedly chartered by the French government for scientific cruises, one of them in
the Ibero-Moroccan Gulf and the Alboran Sea in 1958. Few results were published
(e.g. Pérès 1959 for Tunicates and Bellan 1959 for Polychaetes), but this was the
occasion for divers to make the first encounter with the Laminaria forests (Cousteau
and Dugan 1963).
The French cruise “Polymede II” (April–May 1972) collected 15 benthic samples
along the Alboran Sea, at depths between 80 and 1000 m, and some of this material
L. Sánchez-Tocino
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
e-mail: lstocino@ugr.es
J. Templado (*)
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
e-mail: templado@mncn.csic.es
286
J. L. Rueda et al.