Pentaceros richardsoni

Pentaceros richardsoni
Conservation status
Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Pentacerotidae
Genus:	Pentaceros
Species:	P. richardsoni
Binomial name
Pentaceros richardsoni A. Smith, 1844
Synonyms
Pseudopentaceros richardsoni (A. Smith, 1844) Pentaceros knerii Steindachner, 1866 Griffinetta nelsonensis Whitley & Phillipps, 1939

Pentaceros richardsoni, the pelagic armorhead, Richardson's boarfish or southern boarfish, is a species of armorhead native to the southeastern Atlantic Ocean to the western Indian Ocean from Tristan de Cunha to the coast of South Africa and from the southern Pacific Ocean from Australia to Chile. It occurs over the continental shelf and the continental slope at depths from near the surface to 1,000 m (3,300 ft). This species can reach a length of 56 cm (22 in). It is commercially important as a food fish.

Overfishing

Because its spawning grounds were confined to a few seamounts in the central North Pacific, the pelagic armorhead was easily overfished. Soviet and Japanese trawlers took about 900,000 tons beginning in 1969; by 1984, the pelagic armorhead had been fished to commercial extinction. It has never been widely eaten in Europe or the United States.