Boops boops explained

Boops boops (; from Ancient Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: βόωψ, literally 'ox-eyed'), commonly called the bogue, is a species of seabream native to the eastern Atlantic.^[1]

Taxonomy

In the fourth century BCE, Boops boops was documented by Aristotle as box (Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: βῶξ) in his Historia Animalium.^[2] In the early third century CE, Athenaeus, in his Deipnosophistae, also called the fish box and suggested that the name came from the sound that the fish makes (Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: βοή, "roar"). The name boops (Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: βόωψ, "ox-eyed") is mentioned due to the fish's large eyes.^{[3] [4]} 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.^[5]

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 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 protogynous 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.^[1] 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.^[6]

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".^[7] Much of the catch is used for fishmeal or tuna fishing bait. Boops boops has been used as an indicator of microplastic pollution in the Mediterranean sea.^{[8] [9]}

Parasites

The bogue is host to a wide variety of parasites, ranging from metazoans such as monogenean flatworms (e.g. Microcotyle isyebi^[10] and Cyclocotyla bellones) acanthocephalan spiny-headed worms, nematode roundworms, isopod and copepod crustaceans and myxozoan cnidarians to the unicellular dinoflagellate Ichthyodinium chabelardi, a parasite lethal to eggs developing in ovaries. At least 67 metazoan parasite species have been reported from the species.^[11] In the aftermath of the 2002 Prestige oil spill, the community of parasitic species inhabiting bogue caught off the coast of Spain was noticeably altered.^[12]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Boops boops . Fisheries Global Information System . Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations . 16 January 2011.
2. Book: Thompson, D'Arcy Wentworth . D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson . A History of Animals . Clarendon Press . 1910.
3. Book: Food in the Ancient World From A to Z . Dalby, A. . Routledge . 2003 . 0-415-23259-7 . 61.
4. Web site: LacusCurtius: Athenaeus — Deipnosophistae . 2023-12-05 . penelope.uchicago.edu . 289.
5. Web site: CAS - Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes . 2023-12-05 . researcharchive.calacademy.org.
6. Web site: Commercial designations: Boops boops. European Commission.
7. 1999 . Chemical and sensory changes associated with microbial flora of Mediterranean Boque (Boops boops) stored aerobically at 0, 3, 7, and 10 °C . Applied and Environmental Microbiology . 65 . 2 . 698–706 . American Society for Microbiology . 10.1128/AEM.65.2.698-706.1999. 9925603 . 91082 . Koutsoumanis . K. . Nychas . G. J. . 1999ApEnM..65..698K .
8. Bray . Laura . Digka . Nikoletta . Tsangaris . Catherine . Camedda . Andrea . Gambaiani . Delphine . de Lucia . Giuseppe Andrea . Matiddi . Marco . Miaud . Claude . Palazzo . Luca . Pérez-del-Olmo . Ana . Raga . Juan Antonio . Silvestri . Cecilia . Kaberi . Helen . 2019-04-01 . Determining suitable fish to monitor plastic ingestion trends in the Mediterranean Sea . Environmental Pollution . 247 . 1071–1077 . 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.01.100 . 0269-7491.
9. Tsangaris . Catherine . Digka . Nikoletta . Valente . Tommaso . Aguilar . Alex . Borrell . Asunción . de Lucia . Giuseppe Andrea . Gambaiani . Delphine . Garcia-Garin . Odei . Kaberi . Helen . Martin . Jessica . Mauriño . Elena . Miaud . Claude . Palazzo . Luca . del Olmo . Ana Pérez . Raga . Juan Antonio . 2020-09-01 . Using Boops boops (osteichthyes) to assess microplastic ingestion in the Mediterranean Sea . Marine Pollution Bulletin . 158 . 111397 . 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111397 . 0025-326X.
10. Bouguerche. Chahinez. Gey. Delphine. Justine. Jean-Lou. Tazerouti. Fadila. Towards the resolution of the Microcotyle erythrini species complex: description of Microcotyle isyebi n. sp. (Monogenea, Microcotylidae) from Boops boops (Teleostei, Sparidae) off the Algerian coast. Parasitology Research. 2019. 118. 5. 1417–1428. 0932-0113. 10.1007/s00436-019-06293-y. 30915549. 85528221.
11. Olmo . Ana Pérez-del . Fernández . Mercedes . Gibson . David I. . Raga . Juan Antonio . Kostadinova . Aneta . 2007 . Descriptions of some unusual digeneans from Boops boops L. (Sparidae) and a complete checklist of its metazoan parasites . Systematic Parasitology . 66 . 2 . 137–157 . Springer . 10.1007/s11230-006-9063-5. 17318367 . 25844447 .
12. Pérez-del Olmo . A. . Raga . J.A. . Kostadinova . A. . Fernández . M. . 2007 . Parasite communities in Boops boops (L.) (Sparidae) after the Prestige oil-spill: Detectable alterations . Marine Pollution Bulletin . 54 . 3 . 266–276 . Elsevier . 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2006.10.003. 17118407 .