Opah

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Opah

Opah (also known colloquially as moonfish, sunfish, kingfish

Kingfish

Kingfish may refer to:Fish:* King mackerel Scomberomorus cavalla* Kingcroaker Menticirrhus spp.* Narrow-barred Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus commerson ...
, redfin ocean pan, and Jerusalem haddock) are large, colorful, deep-bodied pelagic

Pelagic zone

Any water in the sea that is not close to the bottom is in the pelagic zone. The word pelagic comes from the Greek language p??a??? or p?lagos, which means open sea....
Lampriform fish

Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
comprising the small family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
Lampridae (also spelled Lamprididae). There are only two living species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
in a single genus

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
: Lampris (from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
lamprid-, "brilliant" or "clear"). One species is found in tropical to temperate waters of most oceans, while the other is limited to a circumglobal distribution in the Southern Ocean

Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean, also known as the Great Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean and the South Polar Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean south of 60th parallel south latitude....
, with the 34th parallel as its northern limit.

Opah are rarely caught by recreational anglers.

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Encyclopedia

Opah (also known colloquially as moonfish, sunfish, kingfish

Kingfish

Pelagic zone

Any water in the sea that is not close to the bottom is in the pelagic zone. The word pelagic comes from the Greek language p??a??? or p?lagos, which means open sea....
Lampriform fish

Fish

Family (biology)

Species

Genus

Greek language

Southern Ocean

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of catching fish. Fishing techniques include Fish net, Fish trap, Spearfishing, angling and Gathering seafood by hand. The term fishing may be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as different types of shellfish, squid, octopus, turtles, Edible frog and some edible marine invertebrates....
s as their large size and attractive form lend themselves well to taxidermy

Taxidermy

Taxidermy is the art of mounting or reproducing dead animals for display or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all species of animals including humans....
. Opah are frequently caught as bycatch in many longline

Longline

Longline can mean:-* Longline fishing* Long line * Long line * Aerial crane, i.e. using a helicopter to lift a heavy object...
tuna

Tuna

Tuna are several species of ocean-dwelling fish in the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tunas are fast swimmers?they have been clocked at 70 km/h ?and include several species that are warm-blooded....
fisheries. Opah is becoming increasingly popular in seafood markets. It first became popular as a sushi and sashimi

Sashimi

Sashimi is a Japanese cuisine primarily consisting of very fresh raw seafood, sliced into thin pieces about 2.5cm wide by 4.0cm long by 0.5 cm thick, but dimensions vary depending on the type of item and chef, and served with only a dipping sauce , depending on the fish, and a simple garnish such as perilla and shredded daikon radish....
in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The meat is lightly flavored and lends itself well to a variety of preparations. Opah flesh has a light pink to orange color. It is popular in Hawaii

Hawaii

File:Pahoehoe and Aa flows at Hawaii.jpgThe State of Hawaii is a U.S. state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia....
, especially in restaurants. An average of 35 percent of an opah's weight is consumable, with the remaining 65% being bone and thick skin.

Physical description

Opah are deeply keeled, compressed and discoid fish with conspicuous coloration: the body is a deep red-orange grading to rosy on the belly, with white spots covering the flanks. Both the median and paired fins are a bright vermillion

Vermilion

Vermilion, sometimes spelled vermillion, when found naturally occurring, is an opaque Orange ish red pigment, used since antiquity, originally derived from the powdered mineral cinnabar....
. The large eyes stand out as well, ringed with golden yellow. The body is covered in minute cycloid scale

Scale (zoology)

In most biology nomenclature, a scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal's skin to provide protection. In lepidopteran species, scales are plates on the surface of the insect wing, and provide coloration....
s and its silvery, iridescent

Iridescence

Iridescence is an optical phenomenon in which hue changes with the angle from which a surface is viewed. Iridescence may be easily seen in soap bubbles and butterfly wings....
guanine

Guanine

Guanine is one of the five main nucleobases found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, the others being adenine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil. In DNA, guanine is paired with cytosine....
coating is easily abraded.

Opah closely resemble in shape the unrelated butterfish (family Stromateidae). Both have falcate pectoral fins and forked, emarginate caudal fins. Aside from being significantly larger than butterfish, opah have enlarged, falcate pelvic fins—with ca. 14–17 rays, which distinguish opah from superficially similar carangids

Carangidae

Carangidae is a family of fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, and scads.They are marine fish found in the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
—positioned thoracically; adult butterfish lack pelvic fins. The pectorals of opah are also inserted (more or less) horizontally rather than vertically. The anterior portion of an opah's single dorsal fin

Dorsal fin

A wikt:dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of some fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as the ichthyosaurs. Its main purpose is to stabilize the animal against rolling and assist in sudden turns....
(with ca. 50–55 rays) is greatly elongated, also in a falcate profile similar to the pelvic fins. The anal fin (ca. 34–41 rays) is about as high and as long as the shorter portion of the dorsal fin, and both fins have corresponding grooves into which they can be depressed.

The snout is pointed and the mouth small, tooth

Tooth

Teeth are small whitish structures found in the jaws of many vertebrates that are used to tear, scrape, and chew food. Some animals, particularly carnivores, also use teeth for hunting or defense....
less and terminal. The lateral line

Lateral line

In aquatic organisms , the lateral line is a sense organ used to detect movement and vibration in the surrounding water. Lateral lines are usually visible as faint lines running lengthwise down each side, from the vicinity of the Operculum s to the base of the tail....
forms a high arch over the pectoral fins before sweeping down to the caudal peduncle. The largest species, Lampris guttatus, may reach a total length of and a weight of . The lesser-known Lampris immaculatus reaches a recorded total length of just .

Life history

Almost nothing is known of opah biology

Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
and ecology

Ecology

Ecology is the science study of the distribution and Abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their nature environment ....
. They are presumed to live out their entire lives in the open ocean, at mesopelagic depths of ca. 50–500 metres, with possible forays into the bathypelagic zone. They are apparently solitary but are known to school

Swarm

The term swarm is applied to fish, insects, birds and microorganisms, such as bacteria, and describes a behavior of an aggregation of animals of similar size and body orientation, generally cruising in the same direction....
with tuna

Tuna

Scombridae

Scombridae is the family of the mackerels, tunas, and bonitos, and thus includes many of the most important and familiar food fishes. The family consists of about 55 species in 15 genera and two subfamilies....
s. Opah propel themselves via a lift-based labriform mode of swimming; that is, by flapping their pectoral fins. This, together with their forked caudal fins and depressible median fins, indicates that opah—like tuna—maintain themselves at constantly high speeds.

Squid

Squid

Squid are marine cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, Symmetry #Bilateral_symmetry, a mantle , and cephalopod arms....
and euphausiids (krill

Krill

Krill are a type of shrimp-like marine invertebrate animal. These small crustaceans are important organisms of the zooplankton, particularly as food for baleen whales, manta rays, whale sharks, crabeater seals, and other pinniped, and a few seabird species that feed almost exclusively on them....
) make up the bulk of the opah diet; small fish are also taken. Pop-up archival transmitting (PAT) tagging operations have indicated that (aside from humans) large pelagic sharks, such as Great White Shark

Great white shark

The great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, also known as white pointer, white shark, or white death, is an exceptionally large lamniformes shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans....
s and Mako Shark

Mako shark

Mako shark may refer to:*Shortfin mako shark*Longfin mako shark*Corvette Mako Shark , a concept car made by Chevrolet...
s, are primary predators of opah. The tetraphyllidea

Tetraphyllidea

Tetraphyllidea is a large tapeworm order that contains some 60 genus and about 800 described species. Tetraphyllideans are remarkable for their scolex morphology , which are the most varied and morphologically complex amongst all tapeworm orders....
n tapeworm Pelichnibothrium speciosum has been found in L. guttatus, which may be an intermediate or paratenic

Paratenic

In parasitology, the term paratenic describes an intermediate host which is not needed for the development of the parasite, but nonetheless serves to maintain the life cycle of the parasite....
host (Scholz et al. 1998).

The plankton

Plankton

Plankton consist of any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. Plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than their Phylogenetics or taxonomy classification....
ic larvae of opah initially resemble those of certain ribbonfishes (Trachipteridae), but are distinguished by the former's lack of dorsal and pelvic fin ornamentation. The slender hatchlings later undergo a marked and rapid transformation from a slender to deep-bodied form; this transformation is complete by 10.6 millimetres standard length in Lampris guttatus. Opah are believed to have a low population resilience.

Species and range

Lampris guttatus (Brünnich, 1788) [Opah] — from the Grand Banks
Grand Banks

The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a group of underwater plateaus southeast of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. These areas are relatively shallow, ranging from 80 to 330 feet in depth....
to Argentina
Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
in the Western Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
; from Norway
Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
and Greenland
Greenland

Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
to Senegal
Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the S?n?gal River in West Africa. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south....
and south to Angola
Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordering Namibia to the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, and Zambia to the east, and with a west coast along the Atlantic Ocean....
(also in the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea or Ocean off the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia....
) in the Eastern Atlantic; from the Gulf of Alaska
Gulf of Alaska

The Gulf of Alaska is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, where Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage are found....
to southern California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
in the Eastern Pacific
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
; in temperate waters of the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean ....
; and rare forays into the Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean, also known as the Great Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean and the South Polar Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean south of 60th parallel south latitude....
.
Lampris immaculatus Gilchrist, 1904 [Southern opah] — confined to the Southern Ocean from the 34th parallel south to the Antarctic Polar Front
Lampris zatima, also known as "Diatomœca zatima," a very small, extinct species from the late Miocene
Miocene

The Miocene is a Geologic time scale of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain....
of what is know Southern California
Southern California

Southern California, or So Cal, is defined as the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population centers on the cities of Los Angeles, California, San Diego, California, San Bernardino, California, and Riverside, California....
. Known primarily from fragments, and the occasional headless specimens.
Megalampris keyesi, an extinct species estimated to be about 4 meters in length. Fossil remains date back to the Late Oligocene
Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Geologic Timescale and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present....
of what is now New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
, and is the first fossil lampridiform found in the Southern Hemisphere.

In Popular Culture

On one episode of the Food Network

Food Network

Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs specials and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns roughly two thirds of the network, and Tribune Company owns the rest....
show Iron Chef America
Iron Chef America

Iron Chef America: The Series is an American cooking show based on Fuji Television's Iron Chef, and is the second American adaptation of the series, following the failed Iron Chef USA....
, opah was chosen as the secret ingredient. A clip from this battle provided a memorable moment when Iron Chef Mario Batali

Mario Batali

Mario Batali is an United Statesn chef, writer, Restaurant and media personality....
jokingly danced with a whole opah en route to his station in the beginning of the program.

It is currently being used as the first game hint for the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition

FIRST Robotics Competition

The FIRST Robotics Competition is a high school robotics competition organized by FIRST. As of early 2007, 1,303 high school teams of 32,500 students from Brazil, Canada, The Netherlands, Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and others compete to build 100 to 120 pound robots that can complete a task that changes every year....
season.

Opah

Physical description

Life history

Species and range

See also

In Popular Culture