Boops boops ( ; from Ancient Greek βόωψ, ), commonly called the boce, bogue, or bogue bream,
Taxonomy
In the fourth century BCE,
Boops boops was documented by
Aristotle as () in his
Historia Animalium.
The common name
boce is thus ultimately derived from the Greek via the Latin bōca.
In the early third century CE,
Athenaeus, in his
Deipnosophistae, also called the fish and suggested that the name came from the sound that the fish makes (, ). The name (, ) 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 zone and semi-
pelagic feeder, it can generally be found at a depth of , and infrequently down to .
Ecology
It consumes seaweed, crustaceans, and some plankton, in schools that rise to the surface at night. Individuals can reach , but average .
Sex determination in the bogue is unclear. It has variously been described as a rudimentary intersex organism, with a few intersex individuals, or a protogyny intersex, with individuals starting out life as females, and some becoming male later on.
Human use
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".
Parasites
The bogue is host to a wide variety of , ranging from such as (e.g. Microcotyle isyebi
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