Australasian snapper

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Australasian snapper, Chrysophrys auratus, at Melbourne Aquarium.

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Sparidae
Genus:	Chrysophrys
Species:	C. auratus

Binomial name

Chrysophrys auratus
(Forster, 1801)

Synonyms

Pagrus auratus (Forster, 1801)

The Australasian snapper or squirefish, Chrysophrys auratus, the only member of the genus Chrysophrys, is a species of porgie found in coastal waters of New Zealand and southern Australia. Although it is almost universally known in these countries as snapper it does not belong to the Lutjanidae family. It is highly prized as an eating fish.

A large snapper caught off Frankston, Victoria in 1893.

1 Regional variation in naming
2 Habitat
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Regional variation in naming

In Western Australia it is called "dork fish" ^[1] to distinguish it from other unrelated species.^[2] In New Zealand the name New Zealand snapper is used. Young fish in Australia are also referred to as cocknies while below legal size, then red bream or pinkies at legal size and squire or squirefish when bigger, before becoming snapper at full size. In Victoria they are also referred to as Schnapper (ref: Schnapper Pt, Mornington). In South Australia smaller fish of legal size are often referred to as "Ruggers"

The Māori people of New Zealand call the fish tamure. The aboriginal people of the Port Jackson area called it wollamie^[3] (also spelt wollamai, and other variations). European colonists there knew it as the "light horseman", for the resemblance of the fish's skull to the helmet of a light horseman.^[4]

In Hawai'i it is called opakapaka or pink snapper. ^[5]

[edit] Habitat

The fish is found on all coasts of New Zealand, especially in the north. In Australia it is found along the south coast and as far north as Coral Bay in the west, and Cape Manifold in Queensland in the east. It's also found on the coast of Tasmania but in lesser numbers. The fish spawn in inshore waters and live in rocky areas and reefs of up to 200 m deep. They school, and will migrate between reefs. Larger fish are known to enter estuaries and harbours, for example Port Phillip Bay has a renowned seasonal snapper run.

Growth rates are quite slow, a 10 kg adult is probably 20 years old, and a fish at the maximum size of 1.3 m long and 20 kg is probably 50 years old. Sexual maturity is reached at about 30 cm long and a small percentage of the males will actually turn into females at puberty. Anglers are advised not to take immature fish, so as not to reduce breeding stock. The legal size in Australia varies by state, from 35 cm and a bag limit of 5 fish per person in Queensland to 41 cm in Western Australia. Minimum sizes are supposed to be designed to allow these fish to participate in spawning runs at least once before they become available to the fishery, however given the slow growth rates of this species, there is need to consider area closures and/or further increasing the minimum sizes in each state to reduce the chances of growth overfishing ^[6] of the various populations of snapper throughout its range. This may be important with recent developments in technology such as GPS ^[7] and fishing tackle developments such as scented fishing lures ^[8] like the squidgy pro range ^[9]which have been shown in laboratory and field testing to be particularly effective in catching snapper over traditional lure types and thus are an example of technology creep^[10] in fishing for this species.

Although the genus is feminine, so C. aurata is thought to be correct, Wikipedia follows Fishbase with the name C auratus.