''Odax pullus'', known by the names greenbone, butterfish or its

Māori language Māori (; endonym: 'the Māori language', commonly shortened to ) is an Eastern Polynesian languages, Eastern Polynesian language and the language of the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. The southernmost membe ...

name mararī, or rarī, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

, a weed whiting from the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Odacidae The Odacidae are a small Family (biology), family of ray-finned fishes commonly known as cales and weed whitings, formerly classified within the Order (biology), order Perciformes. They are related to the much larger families of the wrasses and p ...

, which is found around

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. It is of minor importance to local

commercial fisheries Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often p ...

Description

Greenbone fish are

protogynous hermaphrodites Sequential hermaphroditism (called dichogamy in botany) is one of the two types of hermaphroditism, the other type being simultaneous hermaphroditism. It occurs when the organism's sex changes at some point in its life. A sequential hermaphrodite ...

, beginning life as female and a proportion becoming male later in life. Young fish begin life with a golden-yellow colour, developing into a dark green-blue as the fish become juveniles. Adult fish are typically brown-yellow in colour. This species reaches a length of SL and has been recorded as reaching . Once the fish reach a length of , approximately half of the fish develop into males, who have a bright-blue colour. File:Odax pullus 191237471 (cropped).jpg, A younger golden-yellow ''Odax pullus'' in a kelp forest File:Green-boned Butterfish, Lyall Bay, Wellington 6022, New Zealand imported from iNaturalist photo 24156535.jpg, As their name implies, the bones of the species are blue-green in colour

Range and habitat

''Odax pullus'' is common in New Zealand coastal waters, particularly around the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

. Its range includes the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ; Moriori language, Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island, administered as part of New Zealand, and consisting of about 10 islands within an approxima ...

Antipodes Islands The Antipodes Islands (, ) are inhospitable and uninhabited volcanic islands in subantarctic waters to the south of – and territorially part of – New Zealand. The archipelago lies to the southeast of Stewart Island / Rakiura, and to the ...

and

Bounty Islands The Bounty Islands (; "Island of angry wind") are a small group of uninhabited granite islets and numerous rocks, with a combined area of circa in the South Pacific Ocean. Territorially part of New Zealand, they lie about east-south-east o ...

but it is not present around the

Three Kings Islands 3 (three) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cul ...

, where it is replaced by the

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

bluefinned butterfish ''O. cyanoallix''. It inhabits shallow, rocky areas with

brown algae Brown algae (: alga) are a large group of multicellular algae comprising the class (biology), class Phaeophyceae. They include many seaweeds located in colder waters of the Northern Hemisphere. Brown algae are the major seaweeds of the temperate ...

growth, mainly '' Carpophyllum''.

Diet

Greenbones are primarily herbivorous, feeding mostly on brown seaweeds.

In a human context

Rarī is a traditional

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

food-source, and developed a folk reputation for being troublemakers. The name rarī over time became used to describe people who were troublemakers as well. The fish was more commonly eaten in southern New Zealand, and typically caught using large pole nets which used kelp as a camouflage. Early European settlers similarly had a poor reputation for the fish, until a public health campaign in the 1920s by the

Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their o ...

, who encouraged people to eat the fish due to its high levels of iodine.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1971219 Odax Fish described in 1801 Taxa named by Johann Reinhold Forster Endemic marine fish of New Zealand