Relevant synonyms None Misidentification Hemiramphus marginatus Meristic formula D, 11-14; A, 9-12; P, 11-13; V, 6; LL, 52-54; GR, 24-36  photo : David Darom

SHORT DESCRIPTION Body elongated and slightly compressed. Lower jaw greatly prolonged, beak-like. Upper jaw short and triangular. Dorsal and anal fins posterior in position. Anal fin origin below middle of dorsal fin base. Caudal fin deeply forked, lower lobe much larger than upper lobe. Pelvic fin abdominal positioned behind midpoint of flank. Pectoral fin short. Large cycloid scales, easily detached. No scales on the upper jaw. color : back bluish grey with silvery white belly. A series of 3-9 (usually 4-6) black spots (often hardly visible)* along the flanks. Upper caudal fin yellow. Tip of lower jaw red. size : common 10-30 cm (max. 40 cm). * Note : in the Mediterranean population the blackish spots that are commonly used to distinguish H. far from closely related species, are often faded or completely absent. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Hyporhamphus spp.: scales on the upper jaws (naked in H. far). BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Schooling species. Capable of leaping and skittering on the water surface with half of its body out of the water. Feeds on zooplankton and floating objects. Eggs large with adhesive filaments, which attach to floating or benthic objects. habitat : epipelagic, inshore.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Palestine, 1927. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : wide Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea and east Africa to the Philippines and Samoa. Mediterranean : recorded first from Palestine as H. marginatus (Steinitz, 1927). Successive records from Syria (Gruvel, 1931), Rhodes (Tortonese, 1937) and Egypt (El-Sayed, 1994), Libya, and more recently Kusadasi Bay and Eski Foça, eastern coast of Aegean Sea, Turkey. ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Very abundant in the Eastern Basin. speculated reasons for success : unknown. MODE OF INTRODUCTION Via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS Large schools are caught mainly in purse seine and occasionally in trammel nets contributing to the local fisheries in the Levant.

KEY REFERENCES Steinitz W., 1927. Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Küstenfauna Palästinas. I. Pubblicazioni della Stazione Zoologica di Napoli, 8(3-4): 311-353. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

Last update of the species sheet: November 2013 ©ciesm 2002