The Atlantic bonito (''Sarda sarda'') is a large mackerel-like fish of the family

Scombridae The mackerel, tuna, and bonito family, Scombridae, includes many of the most important and familiar food fishes. The family consists of 51 species in 15 genera and two subfamilies. All species are in the subfamily Scombrinae, except the butterf ...

. It is common in shallow waters of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, 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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, and the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean 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 bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

, where it is an important commercial and game fish.

Description

Atlantic bonito belong to a group which have the

dorsal fins 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 conv ...

very near, or separated by a narrow interspace. Its body is completely scaled, with those scales in 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 ...

area and the lateral line usually larger in size. Bonitos (fishes in the genus ''Sarda'') differ from

tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max len ...

by their compressed bodies, their lack of teeth on the roof of the mouth, and certain differences in colouration. Atlantic bonito share Atlantic waters with the

striped bonito The striped bonito (''Sarda orientalis'') is a species of marine perciform fish. They have been recorded at lengths of , though they are commonly no longer than . Distributed through the Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeograph ...

, '' Sarda orientalis'' (the Atlantic population of which is sometimes considered a separate species, ''Sarda velox''). The striped bonito has been taken on the Atlantic coast as far north as

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

. It is similar in its habits, but somewhat smaller than the more common Atlantic bonito. The Atlantic bonito can be distinguished from its relative by its dark oblique stripes on the back and with a

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. T ...

ry only about half as long as the head, whereas the striped bonito has striping on its topside nearly horizontal and a maxillary more than half the length of the head. Atlantic bonito grow up to and weigh at this size. The world record, , was caught in the

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

Habits

It is a strong swimmer. Normally, it travels in fairly large schools and is common offshore in the vicinity of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, where it is known as "skipjack" because of its habit of jumping from the water. (However, the name "skipjack" more commonly refers to the skipjack tuna, ''Katsuwonus pelamis''.) The spawning season is June, and specimens long are taken in September off Long Island.

Diet

Atlantic bonito eat mackerel,

menhaden Menhaden, also known as mossbunker and bunker and "the most important fish in the sea", are forage fish of the genera ''Brevoortia'' and ''Ethmidium'', two genera of marine fish in the family Clupeidae. ''Menhaden'' is a blend of ''poghaden' ...

alewives The alewife (''Alosa pseudoharengus'') is an anadromous species of herring found in North America. It is one of the "typical" North American shads, attributed to the subgenus ''Pomolobus'' of the genus ''Alosa''. As an adult it is a marine spe ...

, silversides,

sand lance A sand lance or sandlance is a fish belonging to the family Ammodytidae. Several species of sand lances are commonly known as "sand eels", though they are not related to true eels. Another variant name is launce, and all names of the fish are ...

s, and other fishes, as well as squid.

Fishing technique

Bonito are often captured by

fishermen when

trolling In slang, a troll is a person who posts or makes inflammatory, insincere, digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a forum, a chat room, a online video game), or in real life, with the i ...

for bigger game. Bonito have also been caught using pound nets, and amongst other species as bycatch during the traditional fishing practice of

Almadraba Almadraba (from Andalusi Arabic ''almaḍraba,'' meaning 'the place to strike, also derived into pt, Almadrava) is an elaborate and ancient technique for trapping and catching Atlantic bluefin tuna (''Thunnus thynnus'') originally used by the Ph ...

in addition to the main catch, the far larger

Atlantic bluefin tuna The Atlantic bluefin tuna (''Thunnus thynnus'') is a species of tuna in the family Scombridae. It is variously known as the northern bluefin tuna (mainly when including Pacific bluefin as a subspecies), giant bluefin tuna or individuals excee ...

. Thought by most fishermen to be inferior to tuna as a food fish, possibly because of the greater oiliness, it is sometimes used as bait.

As food

Bonito is a popular food fish in the Mediterranean; its flesh is similar to tuna and mackerel, and its size is intermediate between the two. Alan Davidson, ''Mediterranean Seafood'', Penguin, 1972. , p. 123 Bonito under or so (called ''palamut'' ~ ''паламуд'' in Bulgarian) are often

grilled Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above, below or from the side. Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat a ...

steak A steak is a thick cut of meat generally sliced across the muscle fibers, sometimes including a bone. It is normally grilled or fried. Steak can be diced, cooked in sauce, such as in steak and kidney pie, or minced and formed into patti ...

s. Larger bonito (''torik'' in Turkish) are cut into steaks and preserved as '' lakerda''. Bonito is also canned, but canned ''bonito del norte'' (Spanish) is not bonito, but

albacore The albacore (''Thunnus alalunga''), known also as the longfin tuna, is a species of tuna of the order Perciformes. It is found in temperate and tropical waters across the globe in the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones. There are six distinct s ...

tuna. In Algeria and Spain, it is often prepared as ''

escabeche __NOTOC__ Escabeche is the name for a number of dishes in Spanish, Portuguese, Filipino and Latin American cuisines, consisting of marinated fish, meat or vegetables, cooked or pickled in an acidic sauce (usually with vinegar), and colored w ...

'', which preserves it for about a week. Bonito may also be baked and served cold."Palamut papaz yahnisi", Davidson, p. 359

References

* E. C. Raney "Atlantic Bonito." ''The Wise Fishermen's Encyclopedia'' (1951). * https://web.archive.org/web/20081226061817/http://www.landbigfish.com/fish/fish.cfm?ID=83 * {{Taxonbar, from=Q910363 Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of the Black Sea Marine fish of Europe Fish of Europe Scombridae Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fish described in 1793