The trumpeter whiting, ''Sillago maculata'', (also known as the winter whiting or diver whiting) is a common species of coastal marine fish of the smelt-whiting family,

Sillaginidae The Sillaginidae, commonly known as the smelt-whitings, whitings, sillaginids, sand borers and sand-smelts, are a family of benthic coastal marine fish in the order Perciformes. The smelt-whitings inhabit a wide region covering much of the Indo ...

. The trumpeter whiting is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found els ...

to Australia, inhabiting the eastern seaboard from southern

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

to northern

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. The species is found in

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a nar ...

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environme ...

, coastal

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much lar ...

s and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several ...

creeks on

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel wh ...

y and

mud A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

dy substrates in waters ranging from 0 to 30 m deep, occasionally inhabiting

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a soil texture, textur ...

y and

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families ( Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the ...

beds. The trumpeter whiting is a

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other ...

, consuming a variety of

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gr ...

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are ...

s and molluscs, with a dietary shift occurring as they mature and move into deeper waters. The species

spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment, and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** '' Spawn: ...

s during summer, with young fish often penetrating into estuaries and seagrass beds. The species is highly sought after by both

recreational Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasu ...

and

commercial fishermen The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including ...

, with the fish highly regarded as a table food. The trumpeter whiting has two close relatives, the

oriental trumpeter whiting The oriental trumpeter whiting, ''Sillago aeolus'', is a widely distributed species of benthic inshore fish in the smelt-whiting family. The species ranges from east Africa to Japan, inhabiting much if the southern Asian and Indonesian coastlines ...

and the

western trumpeter whiting The western trumpeter whiting, ''Sillago burrus'', is a species of marine fish of the smelt whiting family Sillaginidae that is commonly found along the northern coast of Australia and in southern Indonesia and New Guinea. As its name suggests, ...

, which can be easily confused with ''S. maculata''.

Taxonomy and naming

The trumpeter whiting is one of 29

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

Sillago ''Sillago'' is a genus of fish in the family Sillaginidae and the only non-monotypic genus in the family. Distinguishing the species can be difficult, with many similar in appearance and colour, forcing the use of swim bladder morphology as a de ...

'', which is one of three genera in the smelt-whiting

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

. The smelt-whitings are

Perciformes Perciformes (), also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish. If considered a single order, they are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of all bony fish. Perciformes means ...

in the

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

Percoidea Percoidea is a superfamily of fish of the order Perciformes. The superfamily includes about 3,374 species. Classification The Percoidesa are classified in the 5th Edition of the ''Fishes of the World'' as follows: * Percoidea ...

. The species was first described by

Jean René Constant Quoy Jean René Constant Quoy (10 November 1790 in Maillé – 4 July 1869 in Rochefort) was a French naval surgeon, zoologist and anatomist. In 1806, he began his medical studies at the school of naval medicine at Rochefort, afterwards serving as ...

and

Joseph Paul Gaimard Joseph Paul Gaimard (31 January 1793 – 10 December 1858) was a French naval surgeon and naturalist. Biography Gaimard was born at Saint-Zacharie on January 31, 1793. He studied medicine at the naval medical school in Toulon, subsequ ...

in 1824 from

specimen Specimen may refer to: Science and technology * Sample (material), a limited quantity of something which is intended to be similar to and represent a larger amount * Biological specimen or biospecimen, an organic specimen held by a biorepository ...

s collected from the waters of Sydney Harbour in

, Australia. A specimen from this location was also designated to be the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

. The species was subsequently redescribed under the name of ''Sillago gracilis'' by Alleyne and Macleay in 1877, which is a junior synonym and has been discarded under the

ICZN The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the Int ...

rules. Roland McKay, whilst working on a revision of the sillaginids, found there to be three closely related species of 'trumpeter whiting'; the

, the

and the trumpeter whiting which he interpreted to be subspecies. He therefore assigned the trumpeter whiting the name ''Sillago maculata maculata'' to clarify its subspecies status, doing similar for the other two species. However, soon after publishing, more specimens came to light which validated giving the three subspecies full species status, and the trumpeter whiting once again returned to the

binomial Binomial may refer to: In mathematics *Binomial (polynomial), a polynomial with two terms *Binomial coefficient, numbers appearing in the expansions of powers of binomials * Binomial QMF, a perfect-reconstruction orthogonal wavelet decomposition ...

''Sillago maculata''. The

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contra ...

of the species, trumpeter whiting, refers to the grunting sound the fish makes when first taken from the water, with a number of other species of unrelated fish also known to do this. The names 'winter' and 'diver' whiting are in reference to the high catches made in winter by amateur fishermen and the depth at which larger individuals of the species inhabit respectively.

Description

As with most of the genus ''Sillago'', the trumpeter whiting has a slightly compressed, elongate body tapering toward the terminal mouth. The body is covered in small

ctenoid A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as w ...

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

, including the two rows of

cheek The cheeks ( la, buccae) constitute the area of the face below the eyes and between the nose and the left or right ear. "Buccal" means relating to the cheek. In humans, the region is innervated by the buccal nerve. The area between the insi ...

scales. The first

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

has 11 spines and the second dorsal fin has 1 leading spine with 19 to 20 soft rays posterior. The

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as s ...

is similar to the second dorsal fin, but has 2 spines with 19 to 21 soft rays posterior to the spines. Other distinguishing features include 71 to 75 lateral line scales and a total of 34 to 36

vertebrae The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristi ...

. The species has a known maximum length of 30 cm and a maximum recorded weight of 216 grams. The swimbladder has a short anterior median extension and two anterolateral extensions present, with a complex network of tubular canals that rejoin the swimbladder at four locations anteriorally. Lateral extensions reach to the duct like process present on the ventral surface of the swimbladder. The body is a sandy brown to olive green

colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

above, while the sides and lower body are a silvery brown to cream-white hue. The head is dark olive brown to greenish above, while the cheeks and opercles are golden-green, with a dark blotch on the opercle of some individuals. The trumpeter whiting is usually easy to distinguish by its characteristic dark brown irregular blotches present on the side of the fish, as well as a golden silver

longitudinal Longitudinal is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Longitude ** Line of longitude, also called a meridian * Longitudinal engine, an internal combustion engine in which the crankshaft is oriented along the long axis of the vehicle, ...

band. The spinous dorsal fin is whitish, with a mottled olive green and brown texture. The soft dorsal fin has about five rows of brownish green spots. The anal and

ventral fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous Homology may refer to: Sciences Biology *Homology (biology), any characteristic of biological organisms that is der ...

s are golden to yellow with cream margins, while the

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

s are yellow to pale yellow-green, with a distinct black-blue spot at the base. The caudal fin is olive brown to a darkish green-brown with darker margins.

Distribution and habitat

The trumpeter whiting is

to Australia, inhabiting the eastern

seaboard Seaboard is a synonym for coastline. It can also refer to: * Seaboard, North Carolina, a small town in the United States * Seaboard, Virginia, an unincorporated community and coal town in the United States * Seaboard Corporation, an international a ...

from

Narooma Narooma is a town in the Australian state of New South Wales on the far south coast. The town is on the Princes Highway, which crosses the Wagonga Inlet to North Narooma. The heritage town of Central Tilba is nearby to the south. The name Naro ...

up to

Lizard Island Lizard Island is an island on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland (Australia), northwest of Brisbane and part of the Lizard Island Group that also includes Palfrey Island. It is part of the Lizard Island National Park. Lizard Island is within t ...

. Fossil

otolith An otolith ( grc-gre, ὠτο-, ' ear + , ', a stone), also called statoconium or otoconium or statolith, is a calcium carbonate structure in the saccule or utricle of the inner ear, specifically in the vestibular system of vertebrates. The s ...

s found in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

indicate the trumpeter whiting or one of its closely related species was present in New Zealand until sometime in the late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

. The species prefers

y and

dy substrates in the deeper water of

s, but also inhabits deep sandy areas, with a study by Burchmore et al. suggesting a seasonal move between these two substrates in

Botany Bay Botany Bay ( Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refe ...

. They are frequently found in the mouths of

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

, coastal lakes and

creeks. It is known from a depth range of 0 to 50 m. The juveniles are most abundant in estuaries and shallow water during the summer months, where they occupy sand and seagrass beds before moving into deeper water as they mature.

Biology

Diet

Trumpeter whiting are

s during their adult life, and like other sillaginids undergo a change in

diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

as they grow older. Juveniles are often considered to not be benthic, as they feed on a variety of

planktonic Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cruc ...

prey, with

mysid Mysida is an order of small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the malacostracan superorder Peracarida. Their common name opossum shrimps stems from the presence of a brood pouch or "marsupium" in females. The fact that the larvae are reared in this ...

s, amphipods and rarely

s the main prey. They also prey on a variety of

meiobenthos Meiobenthos, also called meiofauna, are small benthic invertebrates that live in both marine and fresh water environments. The term ''meiofauna'' loosely defines a group of organisms by their size, larger than microfauna but smaller than macrofa ...

, with

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthic (living on the ocean floor), a number of species have p ...

s the predominant form taken. Once they reach over 10 cm in size, they move into deeper water where they prey predominantly on polychaetes,

bivalves Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, biv ...

ophiuroidea Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomo ...

and brachyura. Studies have also shown there is variation in the diet depending on geographical location and to a lesser extent, season.

Life cycle

Trumpeter whiting reach

sexual maturity Sexual maturity is the capability of an organism to reproduce. In humans it might be considered synonymous with adulthood, but here puberty is the name for the process of biological sexual maturation, while adulthood is based on cultural definit ...

at a length of 19 cm in both

sexes Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

, having an extended period of reproductive development from October to April. Reproductive development of

males Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

and

females Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females a ...

was synchronized, with a peak in February and high levels of maturation in December. Running-ripe fish are present every month except June, but are most abundant in December and February. The species

s on

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...

es in sheltered bays, lakes and estuaries in relatively shallow water. Juveniles remain in these shallow water environments from 1–3 m depth, often penetrating into the upper reaches of estuaries. The juveniles have been observed to occupy small

burrow An Eastern chipmunk at the entrance of its burrow A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to construct a space suitable for habitation or temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. Burrows provide a form of s ...

s on shallow

sand flat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal f ...

s, sitting at the entrance and retreating into the burrow as danger approaches. Whether they excavate these burrows themselves or hijack them from other organisms is unknown.

Relationship to humans

Trumpeter whiting are considered to be good quality fish for

consumption Consumption may refer to: *Resource consumption *Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically * Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms * Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curre ...

, having softer

flesh Flesh is any aggregation of soft tissues of an organism. Various multicellular organisms have soft tissues that may be called "flesh". In mammals, including humans, ''flesh'' encompasses muscles, fats and other loose connective tissues, but ...

than most other Australian species of sillaginid. The species is commonly targeted by both commercial and recreational fishermen. Large amounts of the species are taken by prawn

trawl Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different spe ...

ers and

seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plate ...

netters in bays, with catches in

Moreton Bay Moreton Bay is a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia from central Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources. The waters of Moreton Bay are a popular destination for recreational anglers and are ...

alone exceeding 200 tonnes per year, and the catch much higher for the entire

fishery Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place (a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, ...

. The fish are marketed fresh, with trawled fish being

bruise A bruise, also known as a contusion, is a type of hematoma of tissue, the most common cause being capillaries damaged by trauma, causing localized bleeding that extravasates into the surrounding interstitial tissues. Most bruises occur clo ...

d and don't fetch as high a price as netted fish. Recreational fishermen take large quantities of the species during winter predominantly, although they are present year round in most areas. Large catches are possible, with rigs kept as light as possible to avoid spooking the fish. Simple running sinker rigs using a size 6 - 2

hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved or indented, such that it can be used to grab onto, connect, or otherwise attach itself onto another object. In a number of uses, one e ...

, on 2 – 3 kg lines are commonly used, occasionally with red tubing employed as an attractant.

Bait Bait may refer to: General * Bait (luring substance), bait as a luring substance ** Fishing bait, bait used for fishing Film * ''Bait'' (1950 film), a British crime film by Frank Richardson * ''Bait'' (1954 film), an American noir film by Hu ...

consists of the species natural prey such as

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (which is a member of the order decapoda), some of which can be eaten. The term "prawn"Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature ...

s or bass yabbies,

bivalve Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, biv ...

s, a variety of marine worms, as well as bait such as

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting ...

. There are currently bag limits in Queensland of 50 winter whiting per person.

References

External links

Australian Museum siteTrumpeter whiting at fishbaseFishing page
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3751944 Sillaginidae Taxa named by Jean René Constant Quoy Taxa named by Joseph Paul Gaimard Fish described in 1824