The Atlantic bonito (''Sarda sarda'') is a large

mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...

-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 butte ...

. 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 ...

, 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 co ...

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 se ...

area and the

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

usually larger in size.

Bonito Bonitos are a tribe of medium-sized, ray-finned predatory fish in the family Scombridae – a family it shares with the mackerel, tuna, and Spanish mackerel tribes, and also the butterfly kingfish. Also called the tribe Sardini, it consists ...

s (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 length: ...

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, '' 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 List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, 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 The skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'') is a medium-sized perciform fish in the tuna family, Scombridae. It is otherwise known as the balaya (Sri Lanka), bakulan/kayu (North Borneo), tongkol/aya (Malay Peninsula/Indonesia), aku (Hawaii), caka ...

, ''Katsuwonus pelamis''.) The spawning season is June, and specimens long are taken in September off

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

Diet

Atlantic bonito eat

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, silversides, sand lances, and other fishes, as well 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 fittin ...

Fishing technique

Bonito are often captured by

fishermen when trolling for bigger game. Bonito have also been caught using pound nets, and amongst other species as

bycatch Bycatch (or by-catch), in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife. Bycatch is either the wrong species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juve ...

during the traditional fishing practice of Almadraba 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 exce ...

. 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 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 Hugo ...

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 as

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 Lakerda is a pickled bonito dish eaten as a mezze in the Balkans and Middle East.Diane Kochilas, ''The Glorious Foods of Greece'', 2001, , p. 20excerpt/ref> ''Lakerda'' made from one-year-old bonito migrating through the Bosphorus is especially ...

''. Bonito is also canned, but canned ''bonito del norte'' (Spanish) is not bonito, but albacore tuna. In Algeria and Spain, it is often prepared as '' escabeche'', 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