Leather Jacket Fish

Description

These distinctive-looking fish are members of the Monacanthidaefamily, which derives its name from the Greek, meaning one thorn, referring to the sharp spine on the top of their heads. Some species, especially the males, are brightly coloured and intensely patterned. There are over 100 species in this family, found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. The common name, leatherjacket, comes from their thick, tough, leathery skin, which lacks normal scales and can be peeled off like a jacket. Its said that the dried skin was once used to polish wooden boats, leading to another common name used overseas, filefish. There are more than 60 species caught around the Australian coast; the most common are:

Ocean Jacket (Nelusetta ayraudi) is by far the most valuable commercial leatherjacket. It has a long, slender pale grey-brown body, often with some reddish blotches, and a relatively small spike. Caught mainly in the Great Australian Bight, its available year round and is the largest of the commercial Australian leatherjackets, usually 800g-1.5kg, though it can grow to 3.5kg and 76cm long.

Reef Leatherjackets (Meuschenia species) are a group indigenous to Australia. These brightly coloured and patterned fish with large spikes are caught from southern Queensland south-west to the mid-coast of Western Australia, including around Tasmania, by a small specialist inshore fishery. Four species are commonly marketed under the name reef leatherjacket:Yellowstripe Leatherjacket (Meuschenia flavolineata);Sixspine Leatherjacket (Meuschenia freycineti);Horseshoe Leatherjacket (Meuschenia hippocrepis) and Yellowfin Leatherjacket (Meuschenia trachylepis). They are smaller than ocean jackets, averaging about 600g.