Belone belone, Garfish : fisheries, gamefish

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Belone belone (Linnaeus, 1761)

Garfish
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Belone belone   AquaMaps   Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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Belone belone
Picture by Østergaard, T.

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Beloniformes (Needle fishes) > Belonidae (Needlefishes)
Etymology: Belone: Greek, belone = needle; any fish with sharp pointed snout; also Pierre Belon, 1517-64, French zoologist born in Le Mans. Professor at the College de France, author of " La nature et diversité des poissons", 1551 (Ref. 45335).
More on author: Linnaeus.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Marine; brackish; pelagic-oceanic; oceanodromous (Ref. 51243); depth range 2 - 22 m (Ref. 130220). Temperate; 65°N - 14°N, 32°W - 42°E

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. Three subspecies were recognized by Collette and Parin (1970, Ref. 34977) Belone belone belone (Linnaeus, 1761) (Northeast Atlantic); Belone belone euxini Günther, 1866 (Black Sea and Sea of Azov); Belone belone acus Risso, 1827 (Mediterranean Sea and adjacent parts of Atlantic Ocean, Madeira, Canary Islands, Azores, and south to Cape Verde (Ref. 50279); subspecies Belone belone gracilis Lowe, 1839 (France to the Canary Islands including the Mediterranean) in Collette & Parin, 1990 (Ref. 5757).

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 104 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 123983); common length : 45.0 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 3397); max. published weight: 1.4 kg (Ref. 113079)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 16-20; Anal soft rays: 19 - 23. Jaw teeth comparatively large and widely spaced. Vertebrae 75-84. Vomerine teeth present at lengths greater than 20 cam. Lower jaw a little longer than upper jaw. Juveniles with greatly elongated jaw, without black posterior dorsal fin lobe.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Lives close to the surface and has a migratory pattern similar to the mackerel (Ref. 35388). Feeds on small fishes, particularly clupeids and Engraulis (in the Black Sea). Leaps out of the water when hooked. Oviparous (Ref. 205). Eggs may be found attached to objects in the water by tendrils on the egg's surface (Ref. 205). Utilized fresh and frozen; can be fried, broiled and baked (Ref. 9988). Minimum depth reported taken from Ref. 130219.

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Oviparous (Ref. 205).

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator : Collette, Bruce B. | Collaborators

Collette, B.B. and N.V. Parin, 1986. Belonidae. p. 604-609. In P.J.P. Whitehead, M.-L. Bauchot, J.-C. Hureau, J. Nielsen and E. Tortonese (eds.) Fishes of the north-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Volume 2. Unesco, Paris. (Ref. 5505)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 10 July 2012

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries: commercial; gamefish: yes
FAO - Fisheries: landings; Publication: search | FishSource | Sea Around Us

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Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | DORIS | ECOTOX | FAO - Fisheries: landings; Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | National databases | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | Public aquariums | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 123201): 8.8 - 20, mean 11.3 °C (based on 548 cells).
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.6250   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00105 (0.00085 - 0.00129), b=3.08 (3.02 - 3.14), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  4.2   ±0.4 se; based on diet studies.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (tm=2; Fec=1000).
Prior r = 0.43, 95% CL = 0.29 - 0.65, Based on 5 stock assessments.
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Moderate to high vulnerability (49 of 100).
Climate Vulnerability (Ref. 125649):  High vulnerability (58 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766):   High.
Nutrients (Ref. 124155):  Calcium = 50.7 [17.3, 178.7] mg/100g; Iron = 0.407 [0.148, 0.981] mg/100g; Protein = 17.8 [15.7, 20.3] %; Omega3 = 0.702 [0.293, 1.650] g/100g; Selenium = 9.33 [3.62, 22.32] μg/100g; VitaminA = 18.6 [5.4, 78.0] μg/100g; Zinc = 0.482 [0.202, 0.927] mg/100g (wet weight); based on nutrient studies.