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Description |
Geographic Range [top]
Range Description: This species is found in surface tropical and subtropical waters of the worlds oceans. In the Atlantic, it extends north to Cape Cod in the west and Portugal in the east and south to Brazil in the west and Southern Africa in the east. It also occurs in the Mediterranean Sea. In the Pacific, its northern limits appear to be California in the east and southern Hokkaido in the west. It extends southwards to subtropical waters around Australia and New Zealand. It is found throughout the Indo-West Pacific (Nesis 1987, Norman 2000).
Countries occurrence:
Native:
Albania; Algeria; American Samoa (American Samoa); Angola (Angola); Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Aruba; Australia; Bahamas; Bangladesh; Barbados; Belize; Benin; Bermuda; Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Brazil; British Indian Ocean Territory; Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia; Cameroon; Cape Verde; Cayman Islands; China; Christmas Island; Cocos (Keeling) Islands; Colombia; Comoros; Congo; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Cook Islands; Costa Rica; Côte dIvoire; Croatia; Cuba; Curaçao; Disputed Territory; Djibouti; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; Egypt; El Salvador; Equatorial Guinea; Eritrea; Fiji; French Guiana; French Polynesia; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Gibraltar; Greece; Grenada; Guadeloupe; Guam; Guatemala; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Guyana; Haiti; Honduras; Hong Kong; India; Indonesia; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Iraq; Italy; Jamaica; Japan; Kenya; Kiribati; Korea, Democratic Peoples Republic of; Korea, Republic of; Kuwait; Liberia; Libya; Macao; Madagascar; Malaysia; Maldives; Malta; Marshall Islands; Martinique; Mauritius; Mayotte; Mexico; Micronesia, Federated States of ; Monaco; Montenegro; Montserrat; Morocco; Mozambique; Myanmar; Namibia; Nauru; New Caledonia; New Zealand; Nicaragua; Nigeria; Niue; Norfolk Island; Northern Mariana Islands; Oman; Pakistan; Palau; Panama; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Philippines; Pitcairn; Portugal; Puerto Rico; Qatar; Réunion; Russian Federation; Saint Barthélemy; Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Martin (French part); Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Samoa; San Marino; Sao Tomé and Principe; Saudi Arabia; Senegal; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; Singapore; Sint Maarten (Dutch part); Solomon Islands; Somalia; South Africa; Spain; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Suriname; Taiwan, Province of China; Tanzania, United Republic of; Thailand; Timor-Leste; Togo; Tokelau; Tonga; Trinidad and Tobago; Tunisia; Turks and Caicos Islands; Tuvalu; United Arab Emirates; United States; United States Minor Outlying Islands; Vanuatu; Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of; Viet Nam; Virgin Islands, British; Virgin Islands, U.S.; Wallis and Futuna; Western Sahara; Yemen
FAO Marine Fishing Areas:
Native:
Atlantic – western central; Atlantic – northeast; Atlantic – eastern central; Atlantic – southwest; Atlantic – southeast; Atlantic – northwest; Indian Ocean – western; Indian Ocean – eastern; Mediterranean and Black Sea; Pacific – southeast; Pacific – northeast; Pacific – northwest; Pacific – eastern central; Pacific – western central; Pacific – southwest
Additional data:
Range Map: Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.
Population [top]
Population: The population size is unknown.
Current Population Trend: Unknown
Additional data:
Habitat and Ecology [top]
Habitat and Ecology: Female argonauts secrete a shell using glands on their dorsal arms into which they lay their eggs. They produce the shell early in life (before maturation) and use it as a home. Males are dwarf and have been reported living within salps (Banas et al. 1982). They have a modified third arm which detaches during mating and carries the spermatophores to the females. Female argonauts are often found associated with jellyfish, which they use as a source of food and possibly as camouflage (Heeger et al. 1992). Eggs are small (50,000) and are brooded in the shell until they hatch (Laptikhovsky and Salman 2003). Up to five developmental stages can be present in one shell, which is neutrally buoyant due to the female trapping air at the surface (Jereb et al. 2014). The species is assumed to be semelparous and likely has a lifespan of around one year as is common for other cephalopod species. Females probably spawn continuously releasing a batch of around 2,000-4,000 eggs per day over a period of a month or more (Laptikhovsky and Salman 2003).
Systems: Marine
Use and Trade [top]
Use and Trade: The shells are of interest to the shell trade and the flesh is edible. This species is of limited interest to fisheries but is reported occasionally in Indian, Japanese and Taiwanese (Jereb et al. 2014) markets, occasionally with landings of several hundred kilograms (de Bruin et al. 1995). Jereb et al. (2014) state that between the 17th of June and 3rd of July 1982, around 6,300 females were caught in the Sea of Japan.
Threats [top]
Major Threat(s): There is a potential threat from the shell trade, but mostly trade appears to be of shells that wash up on shores so this cannot be considered a current threat.
Conservation Actions [top]
Conservation Actions: There are no species-specific conservation actions in place for this species.
Citation: Allcock, L. 2014. Argonauta argo. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2014: e.T163080A969616. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2014-3.RLTS.T163080A969616.en. Downloaded on 03 August 2017.
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