THE 



CATCH 



Tuna Confusion: 



Distinguishing Atlantic Bonitofrom Little Tunny 



By Rene'e Wolcott Shannon 



ATLANTIC BONITO 



Found in spring, better tasting, has stripes but no spots. 



I 



, t's a case of mistaken identity. 

 Every May, when the water first 

 gets warmer, and again in September 

 and October, when it's starting to cool 

 off, heavy-bodied fish with silver bellies 

 and red flesh school in our sounds. They 

 are members of the tuna family and 

 many people mistake them for the same 

 species, but Atlantic bonito and little 

 tunny are entirely different. 



"In May off our coast, we see the 

 Atlantic bonito," says Jim Bahen, 

 recreational fisheries agent for North 

 Carolina Sea Grant. "It's the first fish we 



see coming in to feed in numbers." The 

 fish reaches 4 to 5 pounds, topping out at 

 27 pounds. Atlantic bonito have dark 

 squiggly lines on top, and common 

 names for them include "little football," 

 "striped ape" and "bonito." 



Some people also call Atlantic 

 bonito "little tunny" or "false albacore," 

 which is caught in the fall of the year. 

 Little tunny is another small fish, 

 weighing up to 15 pounds. Tunny have 

 the same squiggly stripes on their dorsal 

 sides, but they also have dark spots on 

 their bellies. "Another name for the little 



tunny is 'spotted bonito,' to further 

 confuse things," says Bahen. 



"The little tunny is an extremely 

 popular fish in Carteret County, and it's 

 found in Beaufort and Bogue inlets. 

 Sometimes you can catch it from the 

 beach, and fishers converge on it." 



Of the two species, the Atlantic 

 bonito is better to eat, so early summer 

 fishers are in luck. Watch for the fish at 

 dawn and at dusk in deeper water, where 

 bonito feed on juvenile fish such as silver- 

 sides, anchovies, alewives and menhaden. 

 Birds are attracted to the leftovers, so schools 



32 EARLY SUMMER 1999 



