The bay whiting (''Sillago ingenue'') is a species of coastal

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 * ...

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 bay whiting's range extends throughout the west Indian Ocean, including northern

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 ...

, Thailand, India and Taiwan, where it inhabits protected waters. It is

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 ...

in nature, preying on

shrimps Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the Decapoda, decapod order, although some Shrimp#Non-decapods , crustaceans out ...

, polychaetes and

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

s, however little else is known of its biology. Bay whiting are an important part of some inshore

fisheries 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, both ...

around Australia and Asia, where subsistence 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 ...

regularly take the species.

Taxonomy and naming

The bay whiting is one of 29 species in the genus '' Sillago'', which is one of three divisions of the smelt-whiting family,

. The smelt-whitings are Perciformes 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 ...

Percoidei. The species was first identified and named ''Sillago ingenuua'' by Roland McKay in his comprehensive 1985 review of the family Sillaginidae, with the holotype collected near Chantaburi, in the

Gulf of Thailand The Gulf of Thailand, also known as the Gulf of Siam, is a shallow inlet in the southwestern South China Sea, bounded between the southwestern shores of the Indochinese Peninsula and the northern half of the Malay Peninsula. It is around in l ...

in 1975. Prior to this official naming, the species had been misidentified as '' Sillago argentifasciata'' by Shao and Chang in 1978 and again in 1980 by Dutt and Sujatha. The

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

is derived from the Latin ''ingenuus'', meaning "freeborn", in reference to Thailand where the holotype was collected. The only

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 ...

, bay whiting is in reference to the species usual habitat.

Description

As with most of the genus ''Sillago'', the bay whiting has a slightly compressed, elongate body tapering toward the terminal mouth. The body is covered in small ctenoid scales extending to the two rows of cheek scales and head. The first dorsal fin has 11 spines and the second dorsal fin has 1 leading spine with 17 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 se ...

is similar to the second dorsal fin, but has 2 spines with 17 soft rays posterior to the spines. Other distinguishing features include 66 to 70

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 ...

scales and a total of 33 vertebrae. The species has a known maximum length of 20 cm. The

swim bladder The swim bladder, gas bladder, fish maw, or air bladder is an internal gas-filled Organ (anatomy), organ that contributes to the ability of many bony fish (but not cartilaginous fish) to control their buoyancy, and thus to stay at their curren ...

has a short anterior extension, which is significantly longer in older individuals, while there are also 5 short, pointed anterolateral projections. There is a single, poorly developed posterior projection and a poorly developed duct like process on the ventral surface. The bay whiting has a pale sandy brown

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...

and body, ranging to a light

fawn Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

with no obvious mid-lateral silvery band as in ''S. argentifasciata''. All fins are

hyaline A hyaline substance is one with a glassy appearance. The word is derived from el, ὑάλινος, translit=hyálinos, lit=transparent, and el, ὕαλος, translit=hýalos, lit=crystal, glass, label=none. Histopathology Hyaline cartilage is ...

in appearance, and the pectoral fin has no dark spot at the base. Th operculum is almost clear, with the inner dark brown surface showing through. The tip of the nose is occasionally dark.

Distribution and habitat

The bay whiting is known from a fairly patchy distribution, inhabiting the

, India, Taiwan and northern

from

Shark Bay Shark Bay (Malgana: ''Gathaagudu'', "two waters") is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/shark-bay area is located approximately north of Perth, on the ...

around the northern coast to Adolphus Passage, north-eastern Queensland. McKay suggests that it may be far more widespread, but commonly misidentified as ''S. argentifasciata'', or in the case of small subsistence fisheries, has not been reported at all. The species inhabits

inshore A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...

coastal waters, and is known from depths between 20 and 50 m. Bay whiting, like many other sillaginids are known to inhabit estuaries, but little research has been done on their habitat preference.

Diet

The diet of bay whiting has been the focus of a study investigating trophic relations between this species, ''

Sillago sihama The northern whiting (''Sillago sihama''), also known as the silver whiting and sand smelt, is a marine fish, the most widespread and abundant member of the smelt-whiting family Sillaginidae. The northern whiting was the first species of sillagi ...

'', and other similarly distributed fish of the South China Sea. In this location, it was found bay whiting predominantly prey on a variety of

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

species, polychaete worms and

Mantis shrimp Mantis shrimp, or stomatopods, are carnivorous marine crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda (). Stomatopods branched off from other members of the class Malacostraca around 340 million years ago. Mantis shrimp typically grow to around in lengt ...

, with minor amounts of

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

sea urchin Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) of ...

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, bival ...

s and

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

s. Unlike other species of sillaginid, the bay whiting doesn't have a large dietary shift as it moves to adulthood, causing parents to compete with offspring to an extent. The diet is, however, offset from the co-occurring ''S. sihama'', preventing significant competition from this species.

Relationship to humans

The bay whiting is often taken by trawlers operating on the northwest shelf of Western Australia and southward to Shark Bay. This species is very commonly trawled near Torres Straits to the north of Queensland. It is also one of the most important species to traditional and minor commercial

along the Asian coast. It is marketed fresh throughout its range. Bay whiting are occasionally caught by

recreational fishermen Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing fo ...

, with the largest recorded fish caught by an

angler Angler may refer to: * A fisherman who uses the fishing technique of angling * ''Angler'' (video game) * The angler, ''Lophius piscatorius'', a monkfish * More generally, any anglerfish in the order Lophiiformes * '' Angler: The Cheney Vice Presi ...

weighing only 0.047 kg.

References

External links

Bay whiting at FishbaseColour picture of bay whiting and other sillaginids
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2182725 bay whiting Fish of India Fish of Thailand Fish of Taiwan Marine fish of Northern Australia Taxa named by Roland J. McKay bay whiting