Nerophis maculatus

Nerophis maculatus Rafinesque, 1810 or Spotted pipefish (EN), Serpetò (SP), Nérophis Tacheté (FR), Pesce ago macchiato (IT) or Gefleckte Seenadel (DE) is an endemic European fish, with a bright red, greenish-red or dark green body colour, adorned with light spots. It is found on seagrass meadows in the coastal zones of the Adriatic, Mediterranean and Marmara seas. Information on its ecology is still missing, and consequently, N. maculatus is classified as “Data Deficient” by the IUCN Red List. Yet, the IUCN committee warns that habitat destruction may possibly be threatening this species.

Spotted pipefish distribution, according to IUCN (corrected by depth; Portuguese Coast and Azores removed as the presence of this pipefish outside the Mediterranean is highly dubious and probably results from misidentifications).

image: Sylvain Le Bris (licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)