''Acanthopagrus australis'', the yellowfin bream, also known as sea bream, surf bream, silver bream or eastern black bream, is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of 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 the appropriate s ...
of
marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military
* ...
and
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 term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
of the porgy family,
Sparidae
The Sparidae are a family of fish in the order Perciformes, commonly called sea breams and porgies. The sheepshead, scup, and red seabream are species in this family. Most sparids are deep-bodied compressed fish with a small mouth separated by a ...
. It is a deep-bodied fish, occasionally confused with ''Acanthopagrus butcheri'' (
black bream Black bream may refer to one of several fish species:
* Black drummer, ''Girella elevata''
* Black seabream, ''Spondyliosoma cantharus'', a silvery fish found in northern Europe and the Mediterranean
* Galjoen, ''Dichistius capensis'', the nationa ...
), but is generally distinguished by its yellowish
ventral
Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek language, Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. Th ...
and
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 se ...
s. It is a popular target for recreational fishermen due to its capacity to fight well above its weight coupled with its table quality.
Taxonomy
''A. australis'' is one of 20 species in the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
''
Acanthopagrus
''Acanthopagrus'' is a genus of fish in the family Sparidae found in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans.
Species
There are currently 20 recognized species in this genus:
* '' Acanthopagrus akazakii'' Iwatsuki, Kimura & Yoshino, 2006 (New ...
'', part of the porgy
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Sparidae
The Sparidae are a family of fish in the order Perciformes, commonly called sea breams and porgies. The sheepshead, scup, and red seabream are species in this family. Most sparids are deep-bodied compressed fish with a small mouth separated by a ...
.
The species was first mentioned in scientific literature by
Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils.
Owe ...
in an 1853 work on skeletal material held by the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Although he named it ''Chrysophrys australis'', it was insufficiently described and hence designated a ''
nomen nudum
In taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published with an adequate descr ...
''. German-British naturalist
Albert Günther
Albert Karl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther FRS, also Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf Günther (3 October 1830 – 1 February 1914), was a German-born British zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. Günther is ranked the second-most productive re ...
formally described the surf bream in 1859 using Owen's name.
Allan Riverstone McCulloch classified it in the genus ''Sparus'' in 1929. Texts up till 1949 used either of these binomial combinations.
Ian Munro used the binomial name ''Mylio australis'' in a 1949 review of the
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n "silver breams", preferring ''
Mylio'' over ''
Acanthopagrus
''Acanthopagrus'' is a genus of fish in the family Sparidae found in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans.
Species
There are currently 20 recognized species in this genus:
* '' Acanthopagrus akazakii'' Iwatsuki, Kimura & Yoshino, 2006 (New ...
'' and ''Roughleya'' as he found it to be the oldest valid genus name available.
However, the validity of ''Mylio'' was questioned as its describer—
Philibert Commerson
Philibert Commerson (; 18 November 1727 – 14 March 1773), sometimes spelled Commerçon by contemporaries, was a French naturalist, best known for accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of circumnavigation in 1766–1769.
...
—had listed the type as ''Sparus mylio''.
Munro also found that ''M. australis'' was in fact two separate species, creating the new species name of ''
Mylio butcheri'' to accommodate the southern black bream. Munro based this
classification Classification is a process related to categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood.
Classification is the grouping of related facts into classes.
It may also refer to:
Business, organizat ...
on a number of new specimens,
''Acanthopagrus australis'' has a number of
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 contrast ...
s, many of which are applied to a number of related fish species, both in Australia and worldwide. It was known as the sea bream or surf bream during the spawning season, while black bream was a common name from New South Wales. In Queensland it was known simply as bream. Munro termed it the yellowfin bream.
The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts of the Federal Government designated yellowfin bream as preferred name.
It has also been designated the standard name by the CSIRO Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research in commercial fishing in Australia.
Its name to the local
Eora
The Eora (''Yura'') are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales. Eora is the name given by the earliest European settlers to a group of Aboriginal people belonging to the clans along the coastal area of what is now known as the Sy ...
and
Darug
The Dharug or Darug people, formerly known as the Broken Bay tribe, are an Aboriginal Australian people, who share strong ties of kinship and, in pre-colonial times, lived as skilled hunters in family groups or clans, scattered throughout much ...
inhabitants of the Sydney basin has been transcribed as ''garuma'', ''karngooma'', ''caroom-a'' and ''kururma''.
The species has also been known to
hybridise with the closely related southern black bream forming viable offspring, themselves able to
backcross
Backcrossing is a crossing of a hybrid with one of its parents or an individual genetically similar to its parent, to achieve offspring with a genetic identity closer to that of the parent. It is used in horticulture, animal breeding, and product ...
with the parent species. This is only known from one coastal lake where the two species are landlocked together for extended periods, promoting interbreeding and the production of offspring with
morphological traits intermediate between the two species. The setting required to cause hybridisation, however is too rare to consider the two species
subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
, or even a single species.
Description
The yellowfin bream is a slower-growing species than the related black bream,
reaching a fork length of in five years, having matured when long.
The colour can be variable: fish caught in freshwater may be bronze- or brown-coloured, while those caught in estuarine or marine habitats are more silvery.
A specimen measuring long and weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces was caught in the
Georges River
The Georges River, also known as Tucoerah River, is an intermediate tide-dominated drowned valley estuary, located to the south and west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
The river travels for approximately in a north and then easterly ...
and reported in 1928, while another even longer specimen from the
Clarence River was and 7 pounds 2 ounces.
Distribution and habitat
Yellowfin bream are found along the east coast of Australia from around 19 S to 38 S—roughly from
Townsville
Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...
in northern Queensland to
Mallacoota
Mallacoota is a small town in the East Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census, Mallacoota had a population of 1,063. At holiday times, particularly Easter and Christmas, the population increases by about 8,000 ...
and the Gippsland Lakes region in eastern
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
.
A yellowfin bream specimen was first identified 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 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
waters in
Piwhane / Spirits Bay in 1990, likely introduced by ship dispersal of juvenile fish.
Due to the large amount of fishing around
Northland and the lack of subsequent specimens, it is unlikely that a population established.
The bream inhabit estuaries in salt or
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 ...
water up to the fresh water limit, and inshore rocky reef habitats near ocean beaches and rocky headlands.
Breeding
Surf bream come downstream to river mouths during spawning season, typically winter,
where they spawn and the females lay planktonic eggs. These hatch after a few days, and the young remain in the
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 environment ...
.
Like other species of sparid fish, the surf bream have a gonad termed the
ovotestis
An ovotestis is a gonad with both testicular and ovarian aspects. In humans, ovotestes are an infrequent anatomical variation associated with gonadal dysgenesis. The only mammals where ovotestes are not symptomatic of an intersex variation are mole ...
that is made up of
ovarian tissue
The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body ...
dorsally and
testicular tissue ventrally, separated by
connective tissue
Connective tissue is one of the four primary types of animal tissue, along with epithelial tissue, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. It develops from the mesenchyme derived from the mesoderm the middle embryonic germ layer. Connective tiss ...
. The species is
protandrous
Sequential hermaphroditism (called dichogamy in botany) is a type of hermaphroditism that occurs in many fish, gastropods, and plants. Sequential hermaphroditism occurs when the individual changes its sex at some point in its life. In particular, ...
– male fish become female after the spawning season.
The eggs hatch after 2.5 days, after which they spend approximately four weeks as pelagic larvae.
Larvae and juvenile fish live exclusively in seagrass beds in shallow estuaries.
Feeding
Carnivorous, the yellowfin bream is
demersal
The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of ...
, preying on small fishes and invertebrates such as crabs, shellfish,
polychaete worms
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 m ...
and
ascidians
Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians, tunicates (in part), and sea squirts (in part), is a polyphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer "tunic" ...
that dwell at the bottom of estuaries.
They are fond of oysters, and can be found around oyster farms.
Commercial fishing
The species is fished commercially, predominantly in northern
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 ...
and southern
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_ ...
, where it is one of the most commonly caught fish.
Fish are taken predominantly in autumn and winter in net and mesh traps. Recreational anglers are thought to catch twice as many fish as commercial fishers.
Remains of surf bream recovered from
midden
A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...
s in New South Wales indicate it was eaten by
indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
.
References
External links
Fishes of Australia : ''Acanthopagrus australis''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1918226
australis
Endemic fauna of Australia
Marine fish of Eastern Australia
Commercial fish
Fish described in 1859
Taxa named by Albert Günther