The striped red mullet or surmullet (''Mullus surmuletus'') is a species of

goatfish The goatfishes are ray-finned fish of the family Mullidae, the only family in the suborder Mulloidei of the order Syngnathiformes. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus '' Mul ...

found in 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 ...

, eastern

North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

, 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 ...

. They can be found in water as shallow as or as deep as depending upon the portion of their range that they are in. This species can reach a length of SL though most are only around . The greatest recorded weight for this species is . This is a commercially important species and is also sought after as a

game fish Game fish, sport fish or quarry refer to popular fish species pursued by recreational fishing, recreational fishers (typically angling, anglers), and can be freshwater fish, freshwater or saltwater fish. Game fish can be fish as food, eaten aft ...

Etymology

Mullus barbatus ''Mullus barbatus'' (red mullet) is a species of goatfish found in the Mediterranean Sea, Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea and the eastern North Atlantic Ocean, where its range extends from Scandinavia to Senegal. They are fished, mostly by trawling, ...

'' and it are commonly called "

red mullet The red mullets or surmullets are two species of goatfish, '' Mullus barbatus'' and ''Mullus surmuletus'', found in the Mediterranean Sea, east North Atlantic Ocean, and the Black Sea. Both "red mullet" and "surmullet" can also refer to the Mull ...

s" and often are not distinguished, though they can be told apart by the striped first

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

of ''M. surmuletus''. Despite its English name, the striped red mullet, of the goatfish family Mullidae, is only very distantly related to the

grey mullet Grey mullet can mean any of several fish in the family ''Mugilidae'' (the mullets) and having a greyish hue: * Golden grey mullet, '' Chelon auratus'' * Thicklip grey mullet, '' Chelon labrosus'' * Thinlip grey mullet, '' Chelon ramada'' * Leaping ...

and other species called " mullet", classified in their own separate order and family.

Gallery

File:Salmonete de roca (Mullus surmuletus) con un parásito (Anilocra physodes), Parque natural de la Arrábida, Portugal, 2020-07-31, DD 94.jpg, With ''Anilocra physodes'' parasite, Portugal File:Mullus surmuletus, Vlachorema, Pelion imported from iNaturalist photo 80498399.jpg, Greece File:Mullus surmuletus, Galway, Ireland imported from iNaturalist photo 111201316.jpg, Ireland File:Mullus surmuletus, Province of Chieti, Italy imported from iNaturalist photo 230226306.jpg, Italy File:Mullus surmuletus, Ensuès-la-Redonne, Frankreich imported from iNaturalist photo 23726990.jpg, France File:Mullus surmuletus, Le Cap d'Agde, 34300, France imported from iNaturalist photo 300145896.jpg, France File:Mullus surmuletus, Haute-Corse, Corse, FR imported from iNaturalist photo 4783077 (cropped).jpg, France File:Mullus surmuletus, São Martinho, Funchal, Portugal imported from iNaturalist photo 260158533.jpg, Portugal

References

* Alan Davidson, ''Mediterranean Seafood'', Penguin 1972,

External links

* Mullus Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of the Black Sea Fish of Europe Marine fish of North Africa Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Mullidae-stub