Bonitos are a tribe of medium-sized, ray-finned, fish in the family Scombridae, which it shares with the mackerel, tuna, and Spanish mackerel tribes, and also the butterfly kingfish.
Etymology
The fish's name comes from the Portuguese and Spanish
bonito (no evidence has been found for the origin of the name), identical to the adjective meaning "pretty", but the noun referring to the fish seems to come from the low and medieval Latin form
boniton, a word with a strange structure and an obscure origin, related to the word
byza, a possible borrowing from the Greek βῦζα, "owl".
[ Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, 2018, s.v.][ "Bonite", French ]
Species
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Genus Sarda (Georges Cuvier, 1832)
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Australian bonito, S. australis (Macleay, 1881)
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S. chiliensis (Cuvier, 1832)
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Eastern Pacific bonito, S. c. chiliensis (Cuvier, 1832)
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Pacific bonito, S. c. lineolata (Girard, 1858)
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Striped bonito, S. orientalis (Temminck & Hermann Schlegel, 1844)
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Atlantic bonito, S. sarda (Bloch, 1793)
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Genus Cybiosarda (Whitley, 1935)
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Genus Gymnosarda Gill, 1862
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Genus Orcynopsis Gill, 1862
As food
Pacific and Atlantic bonito meat has a firm texture and a darkish color, as well as a moderate fat content. The meat of young or small bonito can be of light color, close to that of
skipjack tuna, and is sometimes used as a cheap substitute for skipjack, especially for canning purposes, and occasionally in the production of cheap varieties of
katsuobushi that are sold as "bonito flakes"
Accessed Sept 2019 Bonito may not, however, be marketed as
tuna in all countries. The
Atlantic bonito is also found in the Mediterranean and the
, where it is a popular food fish, eaten grilled, pickled (
lakerda), or baked.
See also
