Non-native, invasive red lionfish (Pterois volitans), is first recorded in the southern Gulf of Mexico, off the northern Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

We recorded the first sighting and collection of the non-native, invasive red lionfish (Pterois volitans [Linnaeus, 1758]: Scorpaenidae) in the southern Gulf of Mexico, off the northern Yucatan Peninsula. In December 2009, two individuals were sighted (one of them speared) at 38 m depth over a reef formation, about 58 km northwest of the Alacranes Reef National Park, which is located 130 km off the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. More than 20 years after the introduction of P. volitans into the western Atlantic, specifically off the Florida and North Carolina coasts, the invasion circuit now appears to be closing in, since this new record was made about 800 km from the Dry Tortugas and Marquesas, Florida. This recording appears to be the first introgression of the P. volitans population into the Gulf of Mexico via larval transport.