Lampris guttatus

Lampris guttatus, commonly known as the opah, cravo, moonfish, kingfish, and Jerusalem haddock, is a large, colorful, deep-bodied pelagic lampriform fish belonging to the family Lampridae, which comprises the genus Lampris.

Lampris guttatus
Lampris guttatus, conventional and X-ray images
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Lampriformes
Family: Lampridae
Genus: Lampris
Species:
L. guttatus
Binomial name
Lampris guttatus
Brünnich, 1788
Synonyms
  • Lampris lauta (Lowe, 1838)
  • Lampris luna (Gmelin, 1789)
  • Lampris regius (Bonnaterre, 1788)
  • Scomber gunneri (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
  • Scomber pelagicus (Gunnerus, 1768)
  • Zeus guttatus (Brünnich, 1788)
  • Zeus imperialis (Shaw, 1793)
  • Zeus luna (Gmelin, 1789)
  • Zeus regius (Bonnaterre, 1788)
  • Zeus stroemii (Walbaum, 1792)

It is a pelagic fish with a worldwide distribution. While it is common to locations such as Hawaii and west Africa, it remains uncommon in others, including the Mediterranean. In the places where L. guttatus is prevalent, it is not a target of fishing, though it does represent an important commercial component of bycatch. It is common in restaurants in Hawaii. In Hawaiian longline fisheries, it is generally caught in deep nets targeting bigeye tuna. In 2005, the fish caught numbered 13,332. In areas where the fish is uncommon, such as the Mediterranean, its prevalence is increasing. Some researchers believe this a result of climate change. Much is still unknown about the distribution, interactions, life histories, and preferred habitats of this fish and other medium to large-sized pelagic fishes.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.