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.[1] Also called the tribe Sardini, it consists of eight species across four genera; three of those four genera are monotypic, having a single species each. Bonitos closely resemble the skipjack tuna, which is often called a bonito, especially in Japanese contexts.
| Bonito | |
|---|---|
| |
| Atlantic bonito, Sarda sarda | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Scombriformes |
| Family: | Scombridae |
| Subfamily: | Scombrinae |
| Tribe: | Sardini Jordan and Evermann, 1896 |
| Genera | |
| |
EtymologyEdit
The fish's name comes from the Spanish bonito 'pretty'.[2][3] An older theory suggests that it comes from an Arabic word bainīth, but that may have been derived from Spanish as well.[4]
SpeciesEdit
- Genus Sarda (Cuvier, 1832)
- Australian bonito, S. australis (Macleay, 1881)
- Sarda chiliensis (Cuvier, 1832)
- Eastern Pacific bonito, S. c. chiliensis (Cuvier, 1832)
- Pacific bonito, S. c. lineolata (Girard, 1858)
- Striped bonito, S. orientalis (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844)
- Atlantic bonito, S. sarda (Bloch, 1793)
- Genus Cybiosarda (Whitley, 1935)
- Leaping bonito, C. elegans (Whitley, 1935)
- Genus Gymnosarda Gill, 1862
- Dogtooth tuna, G. unicolor (Rüppell, 1836)
- Genus Orcynopsis Gill, 1862
- Plain bonito, O. unicolor (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817)
FoodEdit
Pacific and Atlantic bonito meat has a firm texture and a darkish color. The bonito has a moderate fat content. The meat of young or small bonito can be of light color, close to that of skipjack tuna, and is sometimes used as a cheap substitute for skipjack, especially for canning purposes, and occasionally in the production of cheap varieties of katsuobushi that are sold as bonito flakes. [5] Bonito may not, however, be marketed as tuna in all countries. The Atlantic bonito is also found in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, where it is a popular food fish, eaten grilled, pickled (lakerda), or baked.[6][7]
See alsoEdit
- Other fish sometimes called "bonito" include skipjack tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis
ReferencesEdit
CitationsEdit
- ^ "Sardini". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, 2018, s.v.
- ^ "Bonite", French National Centre for Textual and Lexical Resources
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1989 [1]
- ^ Katsuobushi: Dried Bonito Flakes. Japanese Cooking 101. https://www.japanesecooking101.com/dried-bonito-flakes/. Accessed Sept 2019
- ^ Daskalov, Georgi M; Demirel, Nazli; Ulman, Aylin; Georgieva, Yoana; Zengin, Mustafa (2020-12-01). "Stock dynamics and predator–prey effects of Atlantic bonito and bluefish as top predators in the Black Sea". ICES Journal of Marine Science. 77 (7–8): 2995–3005. doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsaa182. ISSN 1054-3139.
- ^ "AGE AND GROWTH OF ATLANTIC BONITO (SARDA SARDA) IN WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA" (PDF). Sci. Pap. ICCAT, 62(5): 1649-1658 (2008).
SourcesEdit
- "Sardini". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 28 October 2012.