Biogeography and Distribution of Mugilidae in the Western, Central and Southern Regions of Africa

The African continent has a shoreline of 26,000 km that spans from latitude 37º 21’N to 34º 51’S. This large latitudinal range, as well as the presence of important oceanographic and topographic features, is the main factor responsible for the delimitation of four marine regions: the temperate north-eastern Atlantic region, the tropical East Atlantic region, the temperate southern African region and the western Indo-Pacifi c region (Spalding et al. 2007). There are diverse oceanographic regimes present in African coastal waters, e.g., the cold Canary Current is responsible for major tropical upwelling off the coast of Morocco and Mauritania, the cold Benguela Current upwelling off the Atlantic coast of Namibia and South Africa, the warm Agulhas Current infl uencing the Indian Ocean coast of south eastern Africa, and the warm Somali Current fl owing past Somalia and Oman.