First Japan Sea record of Epinephelus bleekeri (Perciformes, Epinephelidae) from Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan

A single specimen (362 mm standard length) of the Duskytail Grouper, Epinephelus bleekeri (Vaillant, 1878), was collected from off Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. Although E. bleekeri has been sporadically reported off the Pacific coast from Kanagawa to Kagoshima prefectures, off the East China Sea coast of Kyushu, and the Nansei Islands in Japan, it has not been reported previously from the Japan Sea. We here report the first specimen-based record of E. bleekeri from the Japan Sea.