The first list of Galician marine fishes was written by Cornide (1788) and it comprised 65 species. Almost one century later, López-Seone (1866) elaborated a complete summary of the Galician fauna and enumerated 95 species of fishes, 53 of them new for the area. The 118 species described in these two pioneering works established the basis of the current knowledge of the marine ichthyofauna of Galicia. During the 20th century,
studies concerning with any aspect of ichthyology (taxonomy, ecology,biology,fisheries, etc.) re-emerged, mainly due to the establishment in Vigo of the Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO) back in 1917, and the Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas (IIM-CSIC) in 1951. The research activity, scientific publications and the
oceanographic and fishery surveys carried out by these two institutions quickly increased the number of marine fishes recorded in this region.