The Atlantic bonito (''Sarda sarda'') is a large

mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...

-like fish of the family

Scombridae The mackerel, tuna, and bonito family, Scombridae, includes many of the most important and familiar food fishes. The family consists of 51 species in 15 genera and two subfamilies. All species are in the subfamily Scombrinae, except the but ...

. It is common in shallow waters of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

, and the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

, where it is an important commercial and game fish.

Description

Atlantic bonito belong to a group which have the dorsal fins very near, or separated by a narrow interspace. Its body is completely scaled, with those scales in the

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

area and the

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelia ...

usually larger in size.

Bonito Bonitos are a tribe of medium-sized, ray-finned, predatory fish in the family Scombridae, which it shares with the mackerel, tuna, and Spanish mackerel tribes, and also the butterfly kingfish. Also called the tribe Sardini, it consists of ...

s (fishes in the genus ''Sarda'') differ from

tuna A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bul ...

by their compressed bodies, their lack of teeth on the roof of the mouth, and certain differences in colouration. Atlantic bonito share Atlantic waters with the striped bonito, '' Sarda orientalis'' (the Atlantic population of which is sometimes considered a separate species, ''Sarda velox''). The striped bonito has been taken on the Atlantic coast as far north as

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

. It is similar in its habits, but somewhat smaller than the more common Atlantic bonito. The Atlantic bonito can be distinguished from its relative by its dark oblique stripes on the back and with a

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

ry only about half as long as the head, whereas the striped bonito has striping on its topside nearly horizontal and a maxillary more than half the length of the head. Atlantic bonito grow up to and weigh at this size. The world record, , was caught in the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

Habits

It is a strong swimmer. Normally, it travels in fairly large schools and is common offshore in the vicinity of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where it is known as "skipjack" because of its habit of jumping from the water. (However, the name "skipjack" more commonly refers to the

skipjack tuna The skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'') is a perciform fish in the tuna family, Scombridae, and is the only member of the genus ''Katsuwonus''. It is also known as katsuo, arctic bonito, mushmouth, oceanic bonito, striped tuna or victor fish. ...

, ''Katsuwonus pelamis''.) The spawning season is June, and specimens long are taken in September off

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

Diet

Atlantic bonito eat

menhaden Menhaden, also known as mossbunker, bunker, and "the most important fish in the sea", are forage fish of the genera ''Brevoortia'' and ''Ethmidium'', two genera of marine fish in the order Clupeiformes. ''Menhaden'' is a blend of ''poghaden'' ...

, alewives, silversides, sand lances, and other fishes, as well as

squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

Fishing technique

Bonito are often captured by

fishermen when

trolling In slang, a troll is a person who posts deliberately offensive or provocative messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a internet forum, forum, a chat room, an Multiplayer video game, online video game) or who performs similar be ...

for bigger game. Bonito have also been caught using pound nets, and amongst other species as

bycatch Bycatch (or by-catch), in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife. Bycatch is either the wrong species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juve ...

during the traditional fishing practice of

Almadraba Almadraba (a Spanish word coming from ; in ) is an elaborate and ancient technique for trapping and catching Atlantic bluefin tuna (''Thunnus thynnus''). The technique, in its most simple iteration, consists in setting up net barriers to trap ...

in addition to the main catch, the far larger

Atlantic bluefin tuna The Atlantic bluefin tuna (''Thunnus thynnus'') is a species of tuna in the family Scombridae. It is variously known as the northern bluefin tuna (mainly when including Pacific bluefin as a subspecies), giant bluefin tuna (for individuals excee ...

. Thought by most fishermen to be inferior to tuna as a food fish, possibly because of the greater oiliness, it is sometimes used as bait.

As food

Bonito is a popular food fish in the Mediterranean; its flesh is similar to tuna and mackerel, and its size is intermediate between the two. Alan Davidson, ''Mediterranean Seafood'', Penguin, 1972. , p. 123 Bonito under or so (called ''palamut'' ~ ''паламуд'' in Bulgarian) are often

grilled Grilling is a form of cooking that involves heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above, below or from the side. Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat and v ...

steak A steak is a cut of meat sliced across muscle fibers, sometimes including a bone. It is normally Grilling, grilled or Pan frying, fried, and can be diced or cooked in sauce. Steaks are most commonly cut from cattle (beefsteak), but can also ...

s. Larger bonito (''torik'' in Turkish) are cut into steaks and preserved as '' lakerda''. Bonito is also canned, but canned ''bonito del norte'' (Spanish) is not bonito, but

albacore The albacore (''Thunnus alalunga''), known also as the longfin tuna, is a species of tuna of the order Scombriformes. It is found in temperate and tropical waters across the globe in the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones. There are six distinct ...

tuna. In Algeria and Spain, it is often prepared as '' escabeche'', which preserves it for about a week. Bonito may also be baked and served cold."Palamut papaz yahnisi", Davidson, p. 359

References

* E. C. Raney "Atlantic Bonito." ''The Wise Fishermen's Encyclopedia'' (1951). * https://web.archive.org/web/20081226061817/http://www.landbigfish.com/fish/fish.cfm?ID=83 * {{Taxonbar, from=Q910363 Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of the Black Sea Marine fish of Europe Fish of Europe Scombridae Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Taxa named by Marcus Elieser Bloch Fish described in 1793