Acanthopagrus australis

A. australis is one of 20 species in the genus Acanthopagrus, part of the porgy family Sparidae. The species was first mentioned in scientific literature by Richard Owen in an 1853 work on skeletal material held by the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Although he named it Chrysophrys australis, it was insufficiently described and hence designated a nomen nudum. German-British naturalist Albert Günther formally described the surf bream in 1859 using Owen's name. Allan Riverstone McCulloch classified it in the genus Sparus in 1929. Texts up till 1949 used either of these binomial combinations. Acanthopagrus australis has a number of common names, many of which are applied to a number of related fish species, both in Australia and worldwide. It was known as the sea bream or surf bream during the spawning season, while black bream was a common name from New South Wales. In Queensland it was known simply as bream. Munro termed it the yellowfin bream. Its name to the local Eora and Darug inhabitants of the Sydney basin has been transcribed as garuma, karngooma, caroom-a and kururma. The species has also been known to hybridise with the closely related southern black bream forming viable offspring, themselves able to backcross with the parent species. This is only known from one coastal lake where the two species are landlocked together for extended periods, promoting interbreeding and the production of offspring with morphological traits intermediate between the two species. The setting required to cause hybridisation, however is too rare to consider the two species subspecies, or even a single species. ==Description==

The yellowfin bream is a slower-growing species than the related black bream, The colour can be variable: fish caught in freshwater may be bronze- or brown-coloured, while those caught in estuarine or marine habitats are more silvery. A specimen measuring long and weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces was caught in the Georges River and reported in 1928, while another even longer specimen from the Clarence River was and 7 pounds 2 ounces. ==Distribution and habitat==

Yellowfin bream are found along the east coast of Australia from around 19 S to 38 S—roughly from Townsville in northern Queensland to Mallacoota and the Gippsland Lakes region in eastern Victoria. Due to the large amount of fishing around Northland and the lack of subsequent specimens, it is unlikely that a population established. ==Breeding==

Surf bream come downstream to river mouths during spawning season, typically winter, The eggs hatch after 2.5 days, after which they spend approximately four weeks as pelagic larvae. Larvae and juvenile fish live exclusively in seagrass beds in shallow estuaries. ==Feeding==

Carnivorous, the yellowfin bream is demersal, preying on small fishes and invertebrates such as crabs, shellfish, polychaete worms and ascidians that dwell at the bottom of estuaries. ==Commercial fishing==

The species is fished commercially, predominantly in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, where it is one of the most commonly caught fish. ==Recreational fishing==

Yellowfin bream are a popular angling species for recreational Australian fishermen. They can be caught in coastal areas and estuaries of New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland. To protect sustainability of the species, they are subject to legal limits on size and a daily bag limit per angler. In New South Wales, the minimum legal length is 25 cms, with a daily bag limit of 10 fish per person. In Victoria, the minimum legal length is 28 cms, with a combined daily bag limit of 10 fish across one or more species of bream and tarwhine. In Queensland, yellowfin bream are subject to a combined bag limit of 30 fish shared with pikey bream and tarwhine. ==References==