---
title: Kawakawa (Euthynnus affinis)
scientific_name: Euthynnus affinis
common_name: Kawakawa
taxon: Scombridae
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-01T16:31:24.348Z
updated: 2026-08-12T11:06:30.152Z
tags: Kawakawa, Euthynnus affinis, Scombridae, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scombridae/kawakawa
---

# Kawakawa (*Euthynnus affinis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Scombridae (*Scombridae*)
- **Size:** up to 1 m
- **Weight:** 14 Kg
- **Depth:** 0-200 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Coastal open water, in fast schools near reef edges
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- steel-blue back with a broken pattern of dark wavy bands above the lateral line
- several dark spots between the pectoral and pelvic fins
- patch of larger scales forming a corselet behind the head, rest of the body smooth
- length up to 1 m

A small tuna to 1 m (3 ft), steel-blue with a broken pattern of dark bands over the back and a few dark spots low on the flank. It hunts in fast schools along reef edges and in open coastal water, and it is the tuna a diver here is most likely to see rather than read about.

The scales tell the family story. Most of the body is smooth and scaleless, but a patch of larger scales forms a collar behind the head - the corselet - and it is a hallmark of the tunas: a compromise between drag and protection for a fish built to swim at speed continuously.

Like its larger relatives it is warm-bodied, holding heat generated by the swimming muscles instead of losing it through the gills, and it cannot stop moving without suffocating. It also cannot afford to stop eating: a school works schooling anchovies and small fish through the day.

It is fished heavily throughout the Indian Ocean and appears in local markets constantly. Ciguatera has been reported from large individuals, which is unusual in a pelagic fish and worth knowing if the catch is eaten.

## Also known as

- **English:** kawakawa, Eastern Little Tuna, Black Skipjack
- **Arabic:** تونة صغيرة شرقية
- **Hebrew:** טונית ים-סופית
- **French:** thonine orientale, Bonite à dos rayé, Bonite d'Inde
- **Italian:** Tonnetto indopacifico
- **German:** falscher Bonito, Orientalische Thonine
- **Spanish:** bacoreta oriental, Bacoreta, Bonito
- **Dutch:** Oost-dwergtonijn, Oostdwergtonijn
- **Czech:** tuňák východní
- **Japanese:** スマ, Soda Katsuo, Hiragatsuo
- **Chinese:** 三點仔, 倒串, 大憨煙
- **Russian:** Малый восточный тунец
- **DA:** Lille thunnin
- **FIJ:** Yatu
- **MAL:** Choora
- **SW:** Jodari
- **TAH:** 'otava
- **TGL:** Tulingan
- **TH:** ปลาโอลาย

## Scientific synonyms

- *Euthunnus affinis*
- *Euthunnus affinis affinis* (Cantor, 1849)
- *Euthunnus affinis yaito* Kishinouye, 1915
- *Euthunnus alleteratus affinis* (Cantor, 1849)
- *Euthunnus wallisi* (Whitley, 1937)
- *Euthunnus yaito* Kishinouye, 1915
- *Euthynnus affinis yaito* Kishinouye, 1915
- *Euthynnus alletteratus affinis* (Cantor, 1849)
- *Euthynnus yaito* Kishinouye, 1915
- *Euthynus affinis* (Cantor, 1849)
- *Evrythynnus affinis* (Cantor, 1849)
- *Thynnus affinis* Cantor, 1849
- *Wanderer wallisi* Whitley, 1937

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, North Pacific Ocean, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scombridae/kawakawa)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*