Description: Dark green above, silvery below, with 3 to 5 dark vertically elongate blotches on the sides; distal half of dorsal and anal fin lobes and tips of caudal fin black.
Global Distribution: Eastern Atlantic: Bay of Biscay, British and Scandinavian waters (rarely) to Angola, including the Mediterranean Sea and offshore islands. View Map
BIOLOGICAL FEATURES
Size: Maximum length 70.0 cm (total length); common length: 35.0 cm; maximum published weight: 2.8 kg.
Age:
Weight length rel.: Azores (Morato et al. 2001): both sexes: a=0.0122, b=2.832, r2=0.988 (n=221).
Portugal, south coast (Santos et al. 2002): a=0.0055, b=3.096, r2=0.919 (n=82).
Cape Verde (Oliveira et al. 2014): a=0.0089, b=2.9370, r2=0.9443 (n=33).
FishBase: Bayesian estimated length-weight: a=0.01380 (0.00692 - 0.02753), b=2.93 (2.75 - 3.11).
Growth type: Isometric
von Bertallanfy growth parameters:
Reproduction: Eggs are pelagic.
Maturity:
Behavioural ecology: Forms schools of variable size.
Population structure & migrations:
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: FishBase: 50 - 200 m.
Habitat: Pelagic. Found in shallow, clear waters, over sand or mud bottoms. Small specimens are regularly caught at night from steep rocky shores.
Feeding habits: Adults feed on small crustaceans, molluscs and fishes.
Trophic level: FishBase: 3.7
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Commercial species. Also gamefish.
Conservation status: Global: Not evaluated.
Europe: Least concern.
González J., Hernández C., Marrero P., Rapp E. (2000). Peces de Canarias: GuÃa Submarina (5th edition). Francisco Lemus Editor, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canarias, Spain, 235 pp.
Hureau J.-C., ed. (1984-1985). Fishes of the North-Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. UNESCO. Accessed through: Marine Species Identification Portal. World Wide Web electronic publication. http://species-identification.org (2014).
IUCN (2014). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. www.iucnredlist.org
Morato T., Afonso P., Lourinho P., Barreiros J.P., Santos R.S., Nash R.D.M. (2001). Length–weight relationships for 21 coastal fish species of the Azores, north-eastern Atlantic. Fisheries Research, 50(3): 297-302.
Nieto A., Ralph G.M., Comeros-Raynal M.T., Kemp J., GarcÃa Criado M., Allen D.J., Dulvy N.K., Walls R.H.L., Russell B., Pollard D., GarcÃa S., Craig M., Collette B.B., Pollom R., Biscoito M., Labbish Chao N., Abella A., Afonso P., Ãlvarez H., Carpenter K.E., Clò S., Cook R., Costa M.J., Delgado J., Dureuil M., Ellis J.R., Farrell E.D., Fernandes P., Florin A-B., Fordham S., Fowle, S., Gil de Sola L., Gil Herrera J., Goodpaster A., Harvey M., Heessen H., Herler J., Jung A., Karmovskaya E., Keskin C., Knudsen S.W., Kobyliansky S., KovaÄić M., Lawson J.M., Lorance P., McCully Phillips S., Munroe T., Nedreaas K., Nielsen J., Papaconstantinou C., Polidoro B., Pollock C.M., Rijnsdorp A.D., Sayer C., Scott J., Serena F., Smith-Vaniz W.F., Soldo A., Stump E., Williams J.T. (2015). Europen Red List of Marine Fishes. IUCN and European Union, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 90 pp.
Oliveira M.T., Santos M.N., Coelho R., Monteiro V., Martins A., Lino P.G. (2014). Weight–length and length–length relationships for reef fish species from the Cape Verde Archipelago (tropical northâ€eastern Atlantic). Journal of Applied Ichthyology, in press.
Santos M.N., Gaspar M.B., Vasconcelos P., Monteiro C.C. (2002). Weight–length relationships for 50 selected fish species of the Algarve coast (southern Portugal). Fisheries Research, 59(1): 289-295.
