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Bogue
Vopain Maltese
Big-eyed silver shoaler always somewhere above you
Meet the Bogue
A slim, round-sectioned seabream that looks more like a small mackerel than a bream. It is bright silver with a blue-grey back, three to five faint golden lines along the flanks and a small dark mark at the base of the pectoral fin. The eye is huge - the scientific name means cow-eye - and the small mouth points slightly upwards. Most fish are 15 to 20 cm and the maximum is around 40 cm.
It lives in midwater rather than on the bottom, in shoals that can number hundreds, hanging over reef, around mooring blocks and boat moorings, over wrecks and in harbours. The shoal drifts, then turns as one when something disturbs it, and it is often the first thing a diver sees on the descent line. It feeds on small crustaceans and plankton and rises towards the surface at night.
Around Malta, Gozo and Comino it is everywhere from just below the surface down past thirty metres, and in harbour water and around the tuna pens it can be extraordinarily dense. It is a staple of the Maltese fish market and one of the standard local bait fish.
When to look: All year in daylight above the reef; it rises towards the surface after dark, so night dives often find it high in the water.
Diving with them
- Look up, not down - it hangs in midwater above the reef rather than on it
- Big, tight shoals over a wreck make one of the easiest wide-angle shots in Malta if you shoot upwards into the light
- It scatters at the sound of a free-flowing regulator, so trim your kit before you drift into a shoal
- A shoal that suddenly balls up and shimmers usually means amberjack or barracuda are working it - look outwards
- Common around mooring lines and shot lines, so it is a useful distraction during a safety stop
Can it hurt you?Harmless
Completely harmless. It is small, fast and entirely uninterested in divers.
Easily confused with
- Salema (Sarpa salpa) - deeper-bodied with bolder gold stripes and a much smaller eye
- Picarel (Spicara smaris) - greyer, with one clear dark rectangular spot on the flank
- Sand smelt (Atherina hepsetus) - far smaller and more transparent, with a bright silver lateral band
Where to meet them: 2 sites
Further reading: FishBase - Boops boops · Wikipedia - Bogue · Vassallo History - Maltese, English and Latin fish names · Il-Miklem - Maltese fish names (Vopa)