A hard, fast jack to 80 cm (31 in) with a tail stalk so narrow it looks pinched, armored along its whole length with a row of bony scutes, and a set of small separate finlets running back to the tail.
That combination is a speed package assembled twice. Tunas have the same finlets and the same narrow stalk for the same reason - to smooth the water rolling off the fins and to transmit force from a body that is all muscle - and the scad arrived at it independently. The fatty eyelid covering most of the eye is the third piece: it streamlines the head at the cost of peripheral vision.
It hunts small schooling fish in fast-moving groups in open coastal water, and it is caught in enormous quantities across the 🌊 Indian Ocean, where it is one of the staple market fish.
Ciguatera has been reported from large individuals, unusual for a pelagic fish and a reminder that the toxin travels further up and out from the reef than most people assume.
The genus. Megalaspis Bleeker 1851 - megalo- (large) + aspis (shield). ETYFish
- torpedo body with a very narrow tail stalk armored in hard scutes
- row of small separate finlets behind the dorsal and anal fins
- large eye with a well-developed fatty eyelid, dark spot on the gill cover
- length up to 80 cm
