Does Pomacanthus asfur Really Occur in Kenya?

[KRA]

I don't know if post in this forum have to be aquarium related or if they can also pertain to wild coral reefs. My question pertains to the latter, so if it's not appropriate here, I'd be happy to move it. Anyway, my question is as stated in the post title: does Pomacanthus asfur really occur in Kenya? I ask because I can't get a hold of any primary sources to confirm its occurrence south of the red sea. Can anyone here vouch to having seen, photographed or collected P. asfur along the Kenyan or Tanzanian coast. As I'm sure is well known, P. asfur is easy to confuse with P. maculosus, which does occur on Kenyan reefs, though it is both rare and exploited there. On inaturalist, the only record for an asfur south of the red sea appears to be a misidentification of a maculosus. Even scientists might not be immune to this, as this record of "asfur" from the Mediterranean sea appears to me to be a maculosus as well. I haven't done a museum specimen search since I haven't had the time, but Fishbase doesn't have any non red sea photographic records of asfur either.
Is it possible that Pomacanthus asfur is actually endemic to the Red Sea, or at least to the northwest Indian ocean, and records from elsewhere on the African coast are based on misidentifications of maculosus?

 

[kharmaguru]

This says the asfur occurs from the red sea to Zanzibar which is south of Kenya.

Arabian angel (Pomacanthus asfur) - Species Profile

 

[birdfish]

My understanding is that they are very rare in east Africa. Very rare. Or if they are numerous it is not somewhere the fish people go. A large Kenya shipper has them very rarely. But they are not likely from there. They used to bring fish in from Yemen to offer 'Red Sea' fish in one shipment with Kenya fish. They get Asfur, Macs, the 3 primary RS butterflies, Purple and Sohal Tangs, all in the Gulf of Aden. The Yemen thing has mostly been closed since some country parked a battleship in the area and the fisherman are not allowed where they were collecting. At least some of the 'Red Sea' fish are found in the Gulf of Aden in the far NW Indian Ocean though.

In general I would think things like inaturalist are full of distribution holes, and one should not base a whole lot of 'these are there because none are in that database' especially with foreign fish. It is full of distribution holes for well-studied things like birds and insects in modern well-populated areas.

 

[KRA]

In general I would think things like inaturalist are full of distribution holes, and one should not base a whole lot of 'these are there because none are in that database' especially with foreign fish. It is full of distribution holes for well-studied things like birds and insects in modern well-populated areas.

Yeah I'm aware of that caveat, that's why I was trying to get some first hand confirmation from primary sources instead of relying on online databases, many of which only repeat potentially dubious second hand information. Thanks for your comment, it was very interesting. In particular, you mention that a large Kenyan exporter used to ship specimens from Yemen. That actually undermines the best circumstantial evidence I had for Asfur's occurrence in Kenyan waters, namely that at least one Kenyan exporter had offered them before. Of course, I know fishes aren't always shipped from where they were caught, and I suspect that may be the typical case for Asfurs that came out of Kenya.