Ocean Leatherjacket, Nelusetta ayraud (Quoy & Gaimard 1824)
An Ocean Leatherjacket, Nelusetta ayraud, at Kioloa, New South Wales, March 2006. Source: Sascha Schultz / iNaturalist.org. License: CC by Attribution-NonCommercial
Females are bright yellowish-brown, with 3-4 indistinct narrow stripes along the sides and bright yellow fins. Males are a greyish-steely blue with numerous black blotches scattered along the lower abdomen, bright yellow dorsal and anal fins, and a bluish-grey caudal fin. Juveniles have 4-5 brown stripes separated by light-yellow stripes along the sides.
This large leatherjacket is common on offshore reefs, and is well known for attacking hooked fish - and the occasional unwary diver.
A school of Ocean Leatherjackets attacking a blue-ringed octopus. Ocean Leatherjackets in the Perth Canyon.Ocean Leatherjacket, Nelusetta ayraud (Quoy & Gaimard 1824)
More Info
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Distribution |
Endemic to the southern half of Australia from about Moreton Bay, Queensland, to the Murion Islands, Western Australia, including around Tasmania. The species also occurs in northern New Zealand. Juveniles inhabit bays, estuaries, seagrass beds and and inshore rocky reefs. Adults prefer deeper offshore waters. |
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Features |
Dorsal fin II,30-36; Anal fin 30-34. |
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Colour |
Females are bright yellowish-brown, with 3-4 narrow indistinct stripes along the sides and bright yellow fins. Males are a greyish-steely blue colour with many numerous black blotches scattered along the lower abdomen, bright yellow dorsal and anal fins, and a bluish-grey caudal fin. Juveniles have 4-5 brown stripes separated by light-yellow stripes along the sides. |
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Feeding |
Feeds mostly on salps, along with gastropod molluscs, crustaceans and fishes. The species is well known for attacking fishes much larger than themselves, taking chunks of flesh from their prey with their razor sharp teeth. |
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Biology |
Individuals mature after about 2.5 years of age. Spawning occurs during autumn and winter, with individuals forming large aggregations in offshore waters at depths of 85-200 m. Ocean Leatherjackets are broadcast spawners, with females producing up to 2 million eggs per spawning season. |
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Fisheries |
A large schooling species that supports substantial commercial and recreational fisheries, usually caught at depths of 100-150 m - taken as incidental bycatch in trawl nets and Danish seine nets in the southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery. |
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Remarks |
Ocean Leatherjackets are aggressive predators, and often form small feeding schools. They are notorious for attacking larger fishes hooked on offshore reefs, and have even been known to attack divers. |
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Etymology |
The authors wrote: "The name given to this fish recalls one of the many victims of yellow fever among naval medics. It was in the last epidemic that M. Ayraud died in Martinique, after seeing one of his comrades, an ensign, succumb to the same disease.” |
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Species Citation |
Balistes ayraud Quoy & Gaimard 1824, Voyage autour du Monde 1: 216, pl. 47, fig. 2. Type locality: Shark Bay, Western Australia. |
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Author |
Bray, D.J. 2023 |
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Resources |
Ocean Leatherjacket, Nelusetta ayraud (Quoy & Gaimard 1824)
References
Edgar, G.J. 2008. Australian Marine Life: the plants and animals of temperate waters. Sydney : Reed New Holland 2nd edn, 624 pp.
Grove-Jones, R.P. & Burnell, A.F. 1991. Fisheries biology of the ocean jacket (Monacanthidae: Nelusetta ayraudi) in the eastern waters of the Great Australian Bight. South Australian Department of Fisheries. FIRDC Project DFS01Z. Final Report. 107 pp.
Gunton, H., Fowler, A.M., Miller, M.E., Booth, D.J. & Stewart, J. 2023. The utility of otolith-based methods for discriminating stock structure of the fishery important monacanthid, Nelusetta ayraud, over an intermediate scale. Fisheries Research 264: 106715, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2023.106715
Harvey, E., Cappo, M., Kendrick, G. & McLean, D. 2013. Coastal fish assemblages reflect geological and oceanographic gradients within an Australian zootone. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80955. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080955
Hollard, H.L. 1854. Monographie de la famille des balistides. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Paris 4 2: 321-366 3 figs (described as Monocanthus platifrons, type locality King George Sound, (Western) Australia)
Hutchins, J.B. 1977. Descriptions of three new genera and eight new species of monacanthid fishes from Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 5(1): 3-58 figs 1-13 (as Nelusetta ayraudi)
Hutchins, J.B. 1994. Family Monacanthidae. pp. 866-891 figs 767-787 in Gomon, M.F., Glover, C.J.M. & Kuiter, R.H. (eds). The Fishes of Australia's South Coast. Adelaide : State Printer 992 pp. 810 figs.
Hutchins, J.B. 2001. Monacanthidae. pp. 3929-3947 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, T.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 6 pp. 3381-4218.
Hutchins, J.B. & Swainston, R. 1986. Sea fishes of southern Australia. Complete field guide for anglers and divers. Swainston Publishing. Perth. 180 pp.
Jenyns, L. 1842. Part 4 Fishes. pp. 97-172 pls 21-29 in Darwin, C. (ed.). The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle under the command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N. during the years 1832 to 1836. London : Smith, Elder & Co. (described as Aleuteres velutinus, type locality King George Sound, Western Australia)
Johnson, J.W. 1999. Annotated checklist of the fishes of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 43(2): 709-762.
Johnson, J.W. 2010. Fishes of the Moreton Bay Marine Park and adjacent continental shelf waters, Queensland, Australia. pp. 299-353 in Davie, P.J.F. & Phillips, J.A. Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Marine Biological Workshop, The Marine Fauna and Flora of Moreton Bay. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 54(3)
Kailola, P.J., Williams, M.J., Stewart, P.C., Reichelt, R.E., McNee, A. & Grieve, C. 1993. Australian Fisheries Resources. Canberra : Bureau of Resource Sciences and the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation 422 pp.
Kner, R. 1867. Fische, Dritte Abteilung. Reise der österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde in den Jahren 1857–1858–1859, unter den Befehlen des Commodore B. von Wüllestorf-Urbair. Zoologischer Theil 1. Wien : Kurl Gerold's & Sohn Vol. 5 273-433 pp. 12-16 pls. (described as Monacanthus frauenfeldii, type locality Sydney, New South Wales)
Kuiter, R.H. 1993. Coastal Fishes of South-eastern Australia. Bathurst : Crawford House Press 437 pp.
Lindholm, R. 1984. Observation on the ocean jacket Nelusetta ayraudi (Quoy and Gaimard) in the Great Australian Bight. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 35(5): 597-599.
Matsuura, K. 2014. Taxonomy and systematics of tetraodontiform fishes: a review focusing primarily on progress in the period from 1980 to 2014. Ichthyological Research 62(1): 72-113.
Matsuura, K., Motomura, H. & Khan, M. 2019. Nelusetta ayraud. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T79802460A79802699. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-1.RLTS.T79802460A79802699.en. Downloaded on 27 September 2020.
May, J.L. & Maxwell, J.G.H. 1986. Field Guide to Trawl Fish from Temperate Waters of Australia. Hobart : CSIRO Division of Marine Research 492 pp.
Miller, M.E. & Stewart, J. 2009. The commercial fishery for ocean leatherjackets (Nelusetta ayraudi, Monacanthidae) in New South Wales, Australia. Asian Fisheries Society 22: 257–264
Miller, M.E. & Stewart, J. 2013. Reproductive characteristics of the ocean leatherjacket, Nelusetta ayraudi. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 23: 87–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-012-9277-3
Miller, M.E., Stewart, J. & West, R.J. 2010. Using otoliths to estimate age and growth of a large Australian endemic monacanthid, Nelusetta ayraudi (Quoy and Gaimard, 1824). Environmental Biology of Fish 88(3): 263–271.
Quoy, J.R.C. & Gaimard, J.P. 1824. Chapter 8. Poissons. 183-328 pls 43-65 in Freycinet, L.C.D. de (ed.). Voyage autour du Monde, entrepris par ordre du Roi, exécuté sur les corvettes de S.M. Uranie et la Physicienne, pendant les années 1817, 1818, 1819 et 1820. Paris : Pillet Aîné Vol. 1 712 pp. 96 pls.
Richardson, J. 1846. Ichthyology. 53-74 pls 31-41, 43-44 & 53 (part) in Richardson, J. & Gray, J.E. (eds). The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Erebus and Terror under the Command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross, R.N., F.R.S., during the years 1839–43. London : E.W. Janson Vol. 2 139 pp. (described as Monacanthus vittatus, type locality King George Sound, Western Australia)
Roughley, T.C. 1957. Fish and Fisheries of Australia. Sydney : Angus & Robertson 341 pp.
Stewart, A.L. & Roberts, C.D. 2015. 246 Family Monacanthidae. pp. 1716-1723 in Roberts, C.D., Stewart, A.L. & Struthers, C.D. (eds) The Fishes of New Zealand. Wellington : Te Papa Press Vol. 4 pp. 1153-1748.
Whitley, G.P. 1930. Leatherjacket genera. The Australian Zoologist 6(2): 179 (as Nelus vittata)
Whitley, G.P. 1939. Studies in Ichthyology No. 12. Records of the Australian Museum 20(4): 264-277 figs 1-3 (as Nelusetta ayraud and Nelusetta vittata)
Williams, A., Last, P.R., Gomon, M.F. & Paxton, J.R. 1996. Species composition and checklist of the demersal ichthyofauna of the continental slope off Western Australia (20–35º). Records of the Western Australian Museum 18: 135-155
Yearsley, G.K., Last, P.R. & Ward, R.D. (eds) 1999. Australian Seafood Handbook. Hobart : CSIRO Marine Research 460 pp.
