Boops boops

Boops boops
School off the coast of Greece
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Spariformes
Family:	Sparidae
Genus:	Boops
Species:	B. boops
Binomial name
Boops boops Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms
Boops canariensis Valenciennes, 1839 Box boops Linnaeus, 1758 Box vulgaris Valenciennes, 1830 Sparus boops Linnaeus, 1758

Boops boops (/ˈboʊ.ɒps ˈboʊ.ɒps/; from Ancient Greek βόωψ, literally 'ox-eyed'), commonly called the bogue, is a species of seabream native to the eastern Atlantic.

Taxonomy

In the fourth century BCE, Boops boops was documented by Aristotle as box (Greek βῶξ) in his Historia Animalium. In the early third century CE, Athenaeus, in his Deipnosophistae, also called the fish box and suggested that the name came from the sound that the fish makes (Greek βοή, "roar"). The name boops (Greek βόωψ, "ox-eyed") is mentioned due to the fish's large eyes. The first scientific description comes from Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of Systema Naturae as Sparus boops. It was later reclassified under the genus Boops.

Distribution and habitat

The species is found off the coasts of Europe, Africa, the Azores and the Canary Islands, from Norway to Angola, and in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. It avoids brackish waters such as the Baltic Sea. A demersal and semi-pelagic feeder, it can generally be found at a depth of 100 m (330 ft), and infrequently down to 350 m (1,150 ft).

Ecology

It consumes seaweed, crustaceans, and some plankton, in schools that rise to the surface at night. Individuals can reach 36 cm (14 in), but average 20 cm (7.9 in). Sex determination in the bogue is unclear. It has variously been described as a rudimentary intersex organism, with a few intersex individuals, or a protogynous intersex, with individuals starting out life as females, and some becoming male later on.

Human use

Bogue for sale in Turkey

Boops boops in a bucket

The species is commercially fished, with 37,830 tonnes taken in 2008. European Commission standards include three size categories for Boops boops, from size 3, which is between 32 and 70 fish per kilogram, to size 1, which is no more than 5 fish per kilogram.

When cleaned and pan fried, broiled or baked fresh, they are good tasting, but when stored their gut flora soon spread unpleasant flavors to their flesh.

Their shelf life is limited, as when stored at freezing (0 °C) for a week, or slightly above freezing for 2 to 4 days, the taste after cooking becomes of "unacceptable quality". Much of the catch is used for fishmeal or tuna fishing bait. Boops boops has been used as an indicator of microplastic pollution in the Mediterranean sea.

Parasites

The bogue is host to a wide variety of parasites, ranging from metazoans such as monogenean flatworms (e.g. Microcotyle isyebi and Cyclocotyla bellones) acanthocephalan spiny-headed worms, nematode roundworms, isopod and copepod crustaceans and myxozoan cnidarians to the unicellular dinoflagellate Ichthyodinium chabelardi, a parasite lethal to eggs developing in ovaries. At least 67 metazoan parasite species have been reported from the species. In the aftermath of the 2002 Prestige oil spill, the community of parasitic species inhabiting bogue caught off the coast of Spain was noticeably altered.

External links

• Photos of Boops boops on Sealife Collection