Skipjack tuna
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| Skipjack tuna | ||||||||||||||
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| Katsuwonus pelamis (Linnaeus, 1758) |
The skipjack tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis, is a medium-sized perciform fish in the tuna family, Scombridae. It is otherwise known as the aku, arctic bonito, mushmouth, oceanic bonito, striped tuna, or victor fish. It grows up to 1 m (3.3 feet) in length.
It is a streamlined, fast-swimming pelagic fish, common in tropical waters throughout the world, where it inhabits surface waters in large shoals (up to 50,000 fish), feeding on fish, crustaceans, cephalopods and mollusks. It is an important prey species for large pelagic fishes and sharks.
It is an important commercial and game fish, usually caught using purse seine nets, and is sold fresh, frozen, canned, dried, salted, and smoked.
Although the skipjack is the most fecund of the main commercial tunas, its fishing is still regarded as highly ecologically damaging. The commonest method for catching tuna, which involves drawing a large net under an artificial fish aggregation device, has a high bycatch, including turtles, sharks and juveniles of other tuna species.[citation needed]
In Japanese cuisine, skipjack tuna is known as katsuo, and is commonly smoked and dried to make katsuobushi, the central ingredient in making dashi (fish stock). Skipjack tuna is also used in katsuo no shiokara. Katsuo is considered to have "moderate" mercury contamination, however, and pregnant women are advised against eating large quantities.[1][2][3]
[edit] References
- Katsuwonus pelamis (TSN 172401). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved on 24 January 2006.
- "Katsuwonus pelamis". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. 10 2005 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2005.
- Clover, Charles. 2004. The End of the Line: How overfishing is changing the world and what we eat. Ebury Press, London. ISBN 0-09-189780-7
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