Fish
Skipjack Tuna
Katsuwonus pelamis
A fast, streamlined open-ocean tuna marked by dark stripes along the belly, and one of the most heavily fished tunas in the world.
- Habitat
- Epipelagic, oceanic
The skipjack is a sleek, torpedo-shaped tuna, its silvery lower sides and belly crossed by several dark longitudinal stripes, a reliable field mark. Behind a well-developed corselet the body is naked and smooth, built for constant high-speed swimming.
Epipelagic and oceanic, it roams the warm seas of the world in large schools and is one of the most commercially important of all the tunas. Off our coast it is a familiar visitor and a lively light-tackle target.