The First Records of Nine Species Including the Northernmost Records of Six Species Collected with SCUBA Diving from Usujiri, Southern Hokkaido Japan

We conducted SCUBA-based surveys of the larval and juvenile fish fauna in reef and seaweed areas in the inshore region of Usujiri, Hakodate, along the Pacific coast of southern Hokkaido, Japan, from 2011 to 2015. A total of 97 species in 9 orders and 33 families were identified based on morphological observations and DNA barcoding analyses of the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I(COI) gene. Of these species, three specimens of the syngnathid, Urocampus nanus Gunther, 1870, three specimens of the pomacentrid, Chromis notata(Temminck and Schlegel, 1843), one specimen of the pomacentrid, Abudefduf notatus(Day, 1870), one specimen of the pomacentrid, Pomacentrus coelestis Jordan and Starks, 1901, one specimen of the tetrarogid, Hypodytes rubripinnis(Temminck and Schlegel, 1845), 20 specimens of the labrid, Halichoeres tenuispinis(Gunther, 1862), 20 specimens of the labrid, Parajulis poecileptera(Temmminck and Schlegel, 1843), one specimen of the cottid, Pseudoblennius sp. 2 and one specimen of the ostraciid Ostracion cubicus Linnaeus, 1758, represent the first records of these nine species in the study area. Of these nine species, the records for U.nanus, A.nonatus, H.rubripinnis, H.tenuispinis, P.sp.2 and O.cubicus represent the northernmost records of these six species in the Pacific Ocean