---
title: Skipjack Tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis)
scientific_name: Katsuwonus pelamis
common_name: Skipjack Tuna
taxon: Scombridae
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-01T18:08:19.782Z
updated: 2026-08-13T19:50:10.077Z
tags: Skipjack Tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis, Scombridae, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scombridae/skipjack-tuna
---

# Skipjack Tuna (*Katsuwonus pelamis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Scombridae (*Scombridae*)
- **Size:** up to 110 cm
- **Weight:** 8 - 10 Kg
- **Depth:** 0-260 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Open ocean, occasionally over deep reef drop-offs
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- streamlined dark blue back, silver sides with four to six dark stripes along the belly
- no scales except on the shoulder and along the lateral line
- row of small finlets between the dorsal fin and the tail
- never still - it cannot stop swimming
- length up to 110 cm

A metal-blue torpedo with dark stripes on the belly, passing a drop-off at speed and gone. Everything about it is built around one constraint: it cannot stop. Skipjack have lost the ability to pump water over their gills and must swim with the mouth open to breathe, from the day they hatch until the day they die.

They also run warm. A network of blood vessels in the muscle works as a countercurrent heat exchanger, trapping the heat their own swimming produces instead of losing it through the gills, so the fish is several degrees warmer than the water around it. Warm muscle is faster muscle, and that is how a fish keeps up a cruising speed no cold-blooded animal of the same size could.

The cost is enormous. It must eat around a tenth of its body weight a day, grows at a rate that would be absurd in a reef fish, and rarely lives past four or five years.

This is also the most heavily fished tuna on earth - the one in the can, several million tons a year. On this coast it appears as a fast shape in the blue, usually over the drop-off, usually once.

## Also known as

- **English:** oceanic bonito, Striped bellied bonito, skipjack tuna
- **Arabic:** Af Muss, Boussenna, Dabub
- **French:** bonite à ventre rayé, Bonite a ventre raye, listao, thonine à ventre rayé
- **Italian:** tonneto striato, Tonina de Dalmazia, Palaja steddara
- **German:** bauchstreifiger Bonito, Gestreifter thunfisch, echter Bonito
- **Spanish:** barrilete listado, Bonito de Veintre Rayado, listado
- **Greek:** Tónnos Macrypteros, Pelamide, Pelamit
- **Portuguese:** Bonito de barriga listada, Bonito de ventre rayado, Gaiado ou melancia
- **Dutch:** Echte bonito, Gestreepte tonijn, Tonijnworst
- **Swedish:** Bonit
- **Polish:** Bonite, Bonito
- **Japanese:** Tsuna Hamu, Katsuo, Nagakoban
- **Russian:** Полосатый тунец, Malayj Tunets-bonito, скипджек
- **CA:** Bonítol de ventre ratllat
- **CYM:** Marlin, Marlinod
- **DA:** Bugstribet bonnit
- **FI:** Boniitti
- **HU:** Csíkoshasú tonhal
- **MAL:** Choora
- **MLT:** Plamtu bla rigi, Plamtu imperjali, Palamidu
- **NAU:** Eae
- **NO:** Bukstripet bonitt, Stripet pelamide, Bonit
- **RO:** Palamida lacherda, Ton dungat, Ton zebrat
- **SQI:** Palamida
- **SR:** Trup prugavac, Tunj prugavac
- **SW:** Jodari
- **TAH:** Auhopu
- **TGL:** Tambakol, Tulingan
- **VI:** Cá ngừ vằn

## Scientific synonyms

- *Euthynnus pelamis* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Euthynnus pelamys* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Gymnosarda pelamis* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Gymnosarda pelamys* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Katsowonus pelamis* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Katsuwinus pelamis* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Katsuwonis pelamis* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Katsuwonnus pelamis* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Katsuwonus pelamsi* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Katsuwonus pelamys* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Katsuwonus vagans* (Lesson, 1829)
- *Katuswonis pelamis* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Orcynus pelamis* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Orcynus pelamys* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Scomber pelamides* Lacepède, 1801
- *Scomber pelamis* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Scomber pelamys* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Thinnus pelamis* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Thunnus pelamys* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Thynnus pelamis* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Thynnus pelamys* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Thynnus vagans* Lesson, 1829

## Range

Canada, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, FAO fishing area 67, Federal Republic of Somalia, Greece, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, North East Pacific, North Pacific Ocean, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, The Coastal Waters of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, Western Indian Ocean

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scombridae/skipjack-tuna)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*