Tropical Tuna

Tropical Tuna

Q: I CAUGHT A FISH JUST LIKE THE ONE pictured here on a fishing trip to Piñas Bay, Panama, with my dad. Its body and teeth looked like those of a mackerel, but its markings were exactly like a bonito’s. The captain called it an albacore, but the fish we know by that name is a tuna on the West Coast of the United States. Can you identify it for us?.

up occasionally. Black grouper, like the gag, more common in the northern Gulf, spend their juvenile days nearshore and in estuaries until they mature and move offshore, so catching one at the jetties makes sense. But many of the groupers change color as they grow from a juvenile to an adult — some even change during different adult life phases — so relying solely on colors is a bit dicey. — Bob Shipp

 Q: I just got back from a trip to Australia’s Princess Charlotte Bay aboard the MV Boomerang. We caught a ton of the fish pictured here, which literally fought themselves to death. The skipper called them diamond trevally, but they lack pennants on their anal and dorsal fins and don’t look exactly like that species. What are they? 

A: Dominick, you are right on the money. That is a striped bonito, Sarda orientalis, a tropical species found throughout the Pacific and into the Indian Ocean. In the eastern Pacific, striped bonito have been taken from the tip of Baja California south to Peru, so your catch off Panama was pretty much in the middle of its range. Like all small tunas (these grow to about 46 inches), this species feeds on fishes, squids and small invertebrates such as krill. While striped bonito are abundant from southern Mexico to Colombia, they are not a major commercial species. Most are taken incidentally by recreational and commercial fishermen pursuing other species. Get one on a fly rod, however, and these fish tug pretty hard