Acanthopagrus australis

Acanthopagrus australis, the yellowfin bream, also known as sea bream, surf bream, silver bream or eastern black bream, is a species of marine and freshwater fish of the porgy family, Sparidae. It is a deep-bodied fish, occasionally confused with Acanthopagrus butcheri (black bream), but is generally distinguished by its yellowish ventral and anal fins.[3] It is a popular target for recreational fisherman due to its capacity to fight well above its weight coupled with its table quality.[4]

Acanthopagrus australis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Actinopterygii
Order:
Perciformes
Family:
Sparidae
Genus:
Acanthopagrus
Species:
A. australis
Binomial name
Acanthopagrus australis
Günther, 1859
Synonyms[2]

Chrysophrys australis Günther, 1859
Mylio australis (Günther, 1859)
Pagrus australis (Günther, 1859)
Sparus australis (Günther, 1859)
Roughleyia australis (Günther, 1859)

Taxonomy

A. australis is one of 20 species in the genus Acanthopagrus, part of the porgy family Sparidae.[5]

The species was first mentioned in scientific literature by Richard Owen in an 1853 work on skeletal material held by the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Although he named it Chrysophrys australis, it was insufficiently described and hence designated a nomen nudum.[6] German-British naturalist Albert Günther formally described the surf bream in 1859 using Owen's name. Allan Riverstone McCulloch classified it in the genus Sparus in 1929. Texts up till 1949 used either of these binomial combinations.[7]

Ian Munro used the binomial name Mylio australis in a 1949 review of the Australian "silver breams", preferring Mylio over Acanthopagrus and Roughleya as he found it to be the oldest valid genus name available.[7] However, the validity of Mylio was questioned as its describer—Philibert Commerson—had listed the type as Sparus mylio.

Munro also found that M. australis was in fact two separate species, creating the new species name of Mylio butcheri to accommodate the southern black bream. Munro based this classification on a number of new specimens,[7]

Acanthopagrus australis has a number of common names, many of which are applied to a number of related fish species, both in Australia and worldwide. It was known as the sea bream or surf bream during the spawning season, while black bream was a common name from New South Wales. In Queensland it was known simply as bream. Munro termed it the yellowfin bream.[7] The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts of the Federal Government designated yellowfin bream as preferred name.[2] It has also been designated the standard name by the CSIRO Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research in commercial fishing in Australia.[8] Its name to the local Eora and Darug inhabitants of the Sydney basin has been transcribed as garuma, karngooma, caroom-a and kururma.[9]

The species has also been known to hybridise with the closely related southern black bream forming viable offspring, themselves able to backcross with the parent species. This is only known from one coastal lake where the two species are landlocked together for extended periods, promoting interbreeding and the production of offspring with morphological traits intermediate between the two species. The setting required to cause hybridisation, however is too rare to consider the two species subspecies, or even a single species.[10]

Description

The yellowfin bream is a slower-growing species than the related black bream,[7] reaching a fork length of 23 cm (9 in) in five years, having matured when 22 cm (8 3⁄4 in) long.[11] The colour can be variable: fish caught in freshwater may be bronze- or brown-coloured, while those caught in estuarine or marine habitats are more silvery.[7] A specimen measuring 56 cm (22 in) long and weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces was caught in the Georges River and reported in 1928, while another even longer specimen from the Clarence River was 58.5 cm (23 in) and 7 pounds 2 ounces.[7]

Distribution and habitat

Yellowfin bream are found along the east coast of Australia from around 19 S to 38 S—roughly from Townsville in northern Queensland to Mallacoota and the Gippsland Lakes region in eastern Victoria.[7] Bream inhabit estuaries in salt- or brackish water up to the fresh water limit, and inshore rocky reef habitats near ocean beaches and rocky headlands.[12]

Breeding

Surf bream come downstream to river mouths during spawning season, where they spawn and the females lay planktonic eggs. These hatch after a few days, and the young remain in the estuaries.[13] Like other species of sparid fish, the surf bream have a gonad termed the ovotestis that is made up of ovarian tissue dorsally and testicular tissue ventrally, separated by connective tissue. The species is protandrous – male fish become female after the spawning season.[14]

Feeding

Carnivorous, the yellowfin bream preys on small fishes and bottom-dwelling invertebrates such as crabs, shellfish, polychaete worms and ascidians.[13] They are fond of oysters, and can be found around oyster farms.[15]

Commercial fishing

The species is fished commercially, predominantly in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland.[1] Fish are taken predominantly in autumn and winter in net and mesh traps. Recreational anglers are thought to catch twice as many fish as commercial fishers.[11] Remains of surf bream recovered from middens in New South Wales indicate it was eaten by indigenous Australians.[16]

References
  1. Iwatsuki, Y.; Russell, B.; Pollard, D. & Carpenter, K.E. (2014). "Acanthopagrus australis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2014: e.T170257A1303135. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2014-3.RLTS.T170257A1303135.en.
  2. Australian Biological Resources Study (14 December 2012). "Species Acanthopagrus australis (Günther, 1859)". Australian Faunal Directory. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australian Government. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  3. Hutchins & Swainston (1986), "Sea Fishes of Southern Australia", p. 62,
  4. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2014). "Acanthopagrus australis" in FishBase. November 2014 version.
  5. Gomon, Martin F.; Bray, Dianne J. "Acanthopagrus". Fishes of Australia. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  6. Owen, Richard (1853). Descriptive Catalogue of the Osteological Series contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 1. London, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. p. 53.
  7. Munro, Ian S. (1949). "Revision of Australian silver breams, Mylio and Rhabdosargus". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 12 (4): 182–223.
  8. CSIRO Marine Research (2015). "Standard Fish Names in Australia (commercial species)". CAAB – Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  9. Troy, Jakelin (1993). The Sydney language. Canberra: Jakelin Troy. p. 53. ISBN 0-646-11015-2.
  10. Rowland, S.J. (1984). "Hybridization between the Estuarine Fishes Yellowfin Bream, Acanthopagrus australis (Gunther), and Black Bream, A. butcheri (Munro)(Pisces : Sparidae)". Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research. CSIRO. 35 (4): 427–440. doi:10.1071/MF9840427.
  11. Industry, Investment NSW (2009). "Yellowfin bream" (PDF). Wild Fisheries Research Program. New South Wales Government. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  12. NSW Department of Primary Industries (2015). "Yellowfin Bream Acanthopagrus australis". Fishing and Aquaculture. NSW Government. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  13. Bray, Dianne J. (2011). "Yellowfin Bream, Acanthopagrus australis (Günther 1859)". Fishes of Australia. Museum Victoria. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  14. Pollock, B. R. (1985). "The reproductive cycle of yellowfin bream, Acanthopagms australis (Günther), with particular reference to protandrous sex inversion". Journal of Fish Biology. 26 (3): 301–11. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8649.1985.tb04269.x.
  15. Brown, Gary (2011). How to Catch Australia's Favourite Saltwater Fish: Salmon, Tailor, Bream, Flathead, Kingfish, Leatherjacket, Luderick, Drummer, Mulloway, Snapper, Trevally, Whiting. Croydon, Victoria: Australian Fishing Network. pp. 19–20. ISBN 9781-8651-3179-5.
  16. Attenbrow, Val (September 2009). "Aboriginal fishing in Port Jackson, and the Introduction of Shell Fish-hooks to Coastal New South Wales, Australia". In Daniel Lunney; Pat Hutchings; Dieter Hochuli (eds.). The Natural History of Sydney. p. 19. ISBN 9780980327236.
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