New and historical records of the ocean sunfish Mola mola in Icelandic waters.

ABSTRACT

The ocean sunfish Mola mola is considered to be globally distributed in both temperate and tropical waters, but there are many gaps in the knowledge of this species' distribution. A total of 31 records of M. mola from Icelandic waters, dating from 1845 to 2014, are presented and georeferenced. An increase in the number of records at the beginning of this century and particularly in 2012, is suggested to be a consequence of both an increase in ocean temperature on the Icelandic shelf and changes in large scale temperature variations in the North Atlantic Ocean.