Blue Sea Chub

The blue sea chub is a deep-bodied, silvery-grey fish with a small mouth and a smooth, uniform colour that shifts to a bluish or brassy sheen in the water. It has a rounded snout, high tail and continuous fin profile that gives it a solid, purposeful look as it cruises the shallows. Divers most often meet it over warm rocky reefs and surge zones from KwaZulu-Natal into the Eastern Cape.

Chubs are primarily herbivores, browsing on seaweeds and the algal turf that coats exposed rock, so they favour shallow, well-lit water where wave action keeps the growth fresh. They are wary but curious, frequently drifting just beyond spearing range before easing off. Handled fish should be returned quickly, as their gut ferments algae and the flesh is best bled and iced if kept.