The fish family Muraenidae: an ideal group for testing at small-scale the coherency of Macaronesia as a biogeographic unit, with the first report on separate fishery statistics

espanolEste trabajo fue ideado para estudiar las especies de Muraenidae (morenas) presentes en aguas de los archi-pielagos volcanicos de Azores, Madeira, Salvajes, Canarias y Cabo Verde (Atlantico centro-oriental), cuyos patrones biogeograficos fueron analizados y comparados. La hipotesis de partida fue que esta familia ictiologica es un grupo ideal para verificar, a pequena escala, la coherencia de la Macaronesia y sus unidades biogeograficas directamente relacionadas –i.e. Azores, Webbnesia y Cabo Verde– propuestas en la literatura reciente. Ademas, este estudio proporciona, por primera vez, estadisticas pesqueras separadas de este grupo en la region que fueron analizadas para contrastar los resultados bio-geograficos EnglishThe present study was conceptualized to study the muraenid species (moray eels) occurring around the volcan-ic archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary and Cabo Verde islands (eastern-central Atlantic). The biogeo-graphic patterns of these species were analysed and compared. We then hypothesized that this fish family is an ideal group for testing at small-scale the coherency of Macaronesia and its direct biogeographic units: i.e. the Azores, Webbnesia and Cabo Verde, as proposed in recent scientific literature. Additionally, this paper provides for the first time separate fishery statistics for this group in the region that were analysed to contrast the biogeographic results