South African mullet

The South African mullet (Chelon richardsonii), also called a harder mullet or simply harder, is a species of mullet. It is found in South African coastal waters from Walvis Bay (Namibia) to KwaZulu-Natal, and grows to a maximum length of 40.5 cm (15.9 in).^[2] The person the specific name honours was not recorded by Andrew Smith when he described this species but it is most likely to be John Richardson (1787-1865), the Scottish naturalist, surgeon and Arctic explorer.^[3]

South African mullet
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Mugiliformes
Family:	Mugilidae
Genus:	Chelon
Species:	C. richardsonii
Binomial name
Chelon richardsonii (A. Smith, 1846)
Synonyms[1]
Mugil richardsonii A. Smith, 1846 Liza richardsonii (A. Smith, 1846) Mugil multilineatus A. Smith, 1846

Smoked mullet or harder.

Hanging bokkoms - whole, salted and dried mullet. Paternoster, Western Cape.

It is also found inland in the waters of the Olifants River (Western Cape).^[4]

Local delicacy in South Africa

Mullet fish caught in the sea and estuaries of the West Coast region are processed by salting and air-drying into bokkoms by small local factories around Velddrif and Laaiplek.^[4]

See also

• The common name "harder mullet" in Germany refers to the flathead mullet, Mugil cephalus.^[2]
• The USS Harder (SS-257), a World War II era naval ship that was named after the fish.

References

1. Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Mugil richardsonii". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
2. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Chelon richardsonii". FishBase. May 2006 version.
3. Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (17 September 2022). "Order MUGILIFORMES (Mullets)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. v. 4.0. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
4. Tayla Susan Louw (August 2020). An exploration of the post-harvest activities of the Olifants Estuary Small-Scale Fishery: Recommendations for equitable market access and beneficiation (Thesis). University of Cape Town.