skipjack
Skipjack is a pelagic fish found in tropical and warm-temperate waters in every ocean and almost every sea. It is a very important species for fisheries were it replaced the tuna. There is a yearly catch of 5 milion tonnes of skipjack or bonito.
skipjack, a predator fish
Skipjack hunts in large schools on smaller fish like sardines and ansjofish.
By hunting these fish the skipjack often jumps out of the water, hence its name.
Skipjack hunts at daytime near the surface.
At night they go down to 100 meters below sealevel.
skipjack enemies
Bonito or Skipjack has many enemies: large hunters are dolphins and whales,
and fast swimming fishes, like dolphinfish, merlin, swordfish and the larger tuna's.
Also seabirds when the skipjack surfaces.
skipjack in the cuisine
Skipjack is important in the Japanese cuisine were it is called katsuo.
This fish contains a large amount of omega-3 fatty acids.
how to make katsuobishi
Katsuobishi is atypically japanese recipe : its a wood-like dried fish. Once it was produced by tuna , but know a day of bonito : Remove the head, the viscera and the tail, smoke and dry it. The result is katsuobishi. It can be dry stored for years.
bonito flakes and dashi
Bonito flakes are the basic to make dashi. Dashi is used to make almost every Japanse soap. .
Bonito en bluefish door Hashime Murayama.
Bonito door Fraser Brunner.