The garfish (''Belone belone''), also known as the garpike, needlefish or sea needle, is a

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

, oceanodromous

needlefish Needlefish (family Belonidae) or long toms are piscivorous fishes primarily associated with very shallow marine habitats or the surface of the open sea. Some genera include species found in marine, brackish, and freshwater environments (e.g., ...

found in

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

and marine 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 ...

and the

Mediterranean 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 ...

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

, and

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

Description

The garfish is a long and slender fish with a laterally compressed body, and grows to about in length. The jaws are elongated and armed with sharp teeth. The pectoral, dorsal, and anal fins are situated well back on the body and the latter two are similar in appearance. Positioning the fins so far back gives greater flexibility to the body. 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 ...

is set low on the flanks. The colour of the body is bluish green with a silvery grey belly and the bones are green. Garfish are

pelagic fish Pelagic fish live in the pelagic zone of ocean or lake waters—being neither close to the bottom nor near the shore—in contrast with demersal fish that live on or near the bottom, and reef fish that are associated with coral reefs. ...

which live close to the water surface. They eat small fish and have a migratory pattern similar to that of the

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. ...

, arriving a short time before the latter to spawn. Their association with mackerel has led to some older common names such as "mackerel guide" and "mackerel guardian".

Behaviour

Garfish are

which live close to the water surface. They eat small fish and have a migratory pattern similar to that of the

, arriving a short time before the latter to spawn. Their association with mackerel has led to some older common names such as "mackerel guide" and "mackerel guardian". They move into shallow waters in April and May and spawn in areas with eelgrass in May and June. In the autumn, they return to the open sea, including the Atlantic west of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. Garfish are

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

and the eggs are often found attached to objects in the water by tendrils on the egg's surface.

Spawning Spawn is the Egg cell, eggs and Spermatozoa, sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of freely releasing eggs and sperm into a body of water (fresh or marine); the physical act is ...

occurs in May and June among seagrass beds with the long sticky tendrils on the chorion adhering to the blades of the sea grasses. The juveniles remain in shallower waters until such time as they attain sexual maturity. The garfish is a predator which hunts in the open sea seeking out shoals of small fish such as Atlantic herring,

sprat Sprat is the common name applied to a group of forage fish belonging to the genus ''Sprattus'' in the Family (biology), family Clupeidae. The term also is applied to a number of other small sprat-like forage fish (''Clupeoides'', ''Clupeonella ...

s, sand eels, and even

three-spined stickleback The three-spined stickleback (''Gasterosteus aculeatus'') is a fish native to most inland and coastal waters north of 30°N. It has long been a subject of scientific study for many reasons. It shows great morphological variation throughout its ra ...

s. They also feed on free-swimming crustaceans. They frequently forage near to the shore and will hunt in and around natural or manmade features which interrupt tidal flows.

Subspecies

The following subspecies of ''Belone belone'' have been recognised: * ''Belone belone belone'' (Linnaeus, 1761) in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean * ''Belone belone euxini'' Günther, 1866 in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov * ''Belone belone acus'' Risso, 1827 in the Mediterranean Sea and adjacent parts of Atlantic Ocean,

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

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 ...

, and south to

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

* ''Belone belone gracilis'' Lowe, 1839 from France to the Canary Islands including the Mediterranean ''B.b. euxini'' is treated as a valid species '' Belone euxini'' by FishBase while other authorities treat ''B.B. acus'' as the species ''Belone acus'', which is

synonymous A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

with ''B.b. gracilis''.

Use as food

Garfish are sometimes caught 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 ...

, mainly in fixed nets along the coast in shallow waters. If caught with rod and line, they tend to leap out of the water when hooked. Garfish are eaten boiled, fried, baked, grilled, or smoked. They have unusual green bones (due to the presence of

biliverdin Biliverdin (from the Latin for green bile) is a green tetrapyrrolic bile pigment, and is a product of heme catabolism.Boron W, Boulpaep E. Medical Physiology: a cellular and molecular approach, 2005. 984–986. Elsevier Saunders, United States. ...

) which discourages many people from eating them, but the green colour is harmless.

Gallery

File:Belone Head.jpg, alt= File:Gewöhnliche Hornhecht Belone belone.jpg File:Belone belone Lefkada.jpg File:Belone belone - Garfish (cropped).jpg File:Belone belone acus.jpg

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q643373 Belone Fish of Europe Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of the Black Sea Fish of the North Sea Fish of the Baltic Sea Fauna of Macaronesia Marine fish of North Africa Fish described in 1761 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus