| South African mullet | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Mugiliformes |
| Family: | Mugilidae |
| Genus: | Chelon |
| Species: | C. richardsonii |
| Binomial name | |
| Chelon richardsonii (A. Smith, 1846) | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Smoked mullet or harder.
Hanging bokkoms - whole, salted and dried mullet. Paternoster, Western Cape.
The South African mullet (Chelon richardsonii), also called a harder mullet or simply harder, is a species of mullet. It is found in South African coastal waters from Walvis Bay (Namibia) to KwaZulu-Natal, and grows to a maximum length of 40.5 cm.[2] The person the specific name honours was not recorded by Andrew Smith when he described this species but it is most likely to be John Richardson (1787-1865), the Scottish naturalist, surgeon and Arctic explorer.[3]
It is also found inland in the waters of the Olifants River (Western Cape).[4]
Local delicacy in South Africa
Mullet fish caught in the sea and estuaries of the West Coast region are processed by salting and air-drying into bokkoms by small local factories around Velddrif and Laaiplek.
See also
- The common name "harder mullet" in Germany refers to the flathead mullet, Mugil cephalus.[5]
- The USS Harder (SS-257), a World War II era naval ship that was named after the fish.
References
- ↑ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Mugil richardsonii". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
- ↑ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2006). "Liza richardsonii" in FishBase. May 2006 version.
- ↑ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (4 June 2018). "Mugiliformes". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
- ↑ The Olifants River harder fishery (Lisa richardsoni)
- ↑ Harder common name
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