The Japanese lates (''Lates japonicus''), also known as the ''akame'' (from the Japanese , literally "red eye") or Japanese barramundi, is a species of

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 ...

found in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. A bottom-dweller restricted to

estuarine 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 ...

habitats and large rivers in the coastal eastern parts of the country, it is

threatened Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensat ...

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

. As it is similar to the related barramundi, it was classified as the same species until 1984.

Description

The Japanese lates has a comparatively long and compressed body with a large mouth. It is a metallic grey in overall colour, with a bluish tint, darker upperparts, and lighter underparts. Its fins are greyish black with white tips, and its pupils are red. While similar to the barramundi, it differs in several features. It has a taller and deeper body (averaging a much greater size), longer third dorsal and second anal spines, fewer

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 ...

rays, more scales, and fewer gill rakers. It reaches an officially recorded maximum length of and a maximum weight of . However many anglers have caught Akame of much greater size.

Taxonomy

Having previously been considered to be the same as the barramundi (''Lates calcifer''), ''Lates japonicus'' was first scientifically described in 1984. Even when it was realised as a separate species, publication of a formal description was delayed since the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

of the barramundi was alleged to originate in Japan, and because of confusion caused by the deformities of the barramundi's type specimen. Both the barramundi and the Japanese lates are classified with about 10 other species in the genus '' Lates'', which in turn is in the family Latidae (or in older classifications,

Centropomidae ''Centropomus'' is a genus of predominantly marine fish comprising the family Centropomidae. The type species is ''Centropomus undecimalis'', the common snook. Commonly known as snooks or ''róbalos'', the ''Centropomus'' species are native to t ...

Ecology

The Japanese lates is a bottom dweller in the freshwater shallows,

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 ...

, and the ocean. It is known in the south-western part of the Japanese main islands, where it is found in the seas around Tosa Bay, in

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 757,914 (1 December 2011) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and ...

, Shikoku, and near Miyazaki City in

Miyazaki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Miyazaki Prefecture has a population of 1,073,054 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 7,735 km2 (2,986 sq mi). Miyazaki Prefecture borders Ōita Prefecture to the north, Kuma ...

, Kyushu. It is believed to spawn there, and younger fish are found up the Ōyodo and

Shimanto River The is a river in western Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. 196 km in length, it has a watershed of 2,270 km². Its name is written with kanji meaning "forty thousand and ten". Since the river is remote from major cities and does not have an ...

s. The barramundi is believed to replace it in the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...

. The Japanese lates has long been known to fishermen, but because of its relative rarity and shyness, it achieved "almost legendary" status. For some time, scientists were uncertain which fish was the "''akame''" of legend, and some suspected ''

Psammoperca waigiensis The Waigieu seaperch (''Psammoperca waigiensis''), or Waigeo barramundi, is a species of seawater, marine fish in family (biology), family Latidae of order (biology), order Perciformes. The only species of genus ''Psammoperca'', it is native to ...

''. It is kept in aquaria and cultured for food, but is poorly known in the wild. In February 2010, the first video of the'' akame ''living in its natural surroundings was broadcast on the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, in a report on the University of Tokyo's research project where Japanese lates were fitted with

ultrasound Ultrasound is sound waves with frequency, frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing range, hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hea ...

tracking devices.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4386821 Latidae Fish described in 1984 Endemic fauna of Japan Fish of Japan