Blackbarred halfbeak

Hemiramphus far

FAMILY

Hemiramphidae

TAXONOMY

Esox far Forsskål, 1775, Luhaiya, Yemen, Red Sea.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Blackbarred garfish; French: Aiguillette, demi-bec bagnard.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Maximum length 17.7 in (45 cm). Lower jaw beaklike and dramatically longer than upper jaw; color is bluish dorsally and silvery on sides, with three to nine vertical bars. Dorsal and anal fins posteriorly situated, lower lobe of caudal fin longer than upper.

DISTRIBUTION

Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to Samoa, from northern Australia and New Caledonia to the Ryukyu Islands. Has entered the eastern Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.

HABITAT

Marine; near vegetation in coastal areas.

BEHAVIOR

Forms schools.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Feeds mostly on sea grasses, in addition to green algae and diatoms.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Spawns in estuaries.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Commercially fished, said to have good-tasting flesh, sometimes used as bait.