Pomatomus Saltatix (Bluefish, Tailor, Shad)

Sun Mar 28, 2021 4:39 pm

Was just doing some research reading about one of my most favourite gamefish species - Pomatomus Saltatrix, also commonly known as Bluefish, Tailor or Shad depending on whether you're in the USA, Africa or Australia, and noticed that not only are these fast moving, shallow water/surf zone super predators also prevalent in the Mediterranean, but there's a super health population of absolute slabs living in the various mid-Atlantic oceanic islands owned by Portugal - the Azores and Madeira.

Given the strong flow of the Gulf stream from the south-east USA coast, across the Atlantic, past the Azores, it got me wondering how long it might take for some of these critters to pop up in Irish waters.

See attached scientific research data, which interestingly shows the current global natural habitat, as well as the 2050 forecast habitat, which would squarely bring these supreme predators into our waters.
https://fishbase.mnhn.fr/summary/pomato ... atrix.html
https://www.aquamaps.org/receive.php?ty ... ap=regular

We all know Global Warming is a bad thing, but just perhaps one of the upsides might be some of these more temperate water super predators pitching up off the beaches and rocky points.
Just perhaps, the next time you're throwing a lure out for Bass or Mackerel and you feel a brief hit, then just bring in slack line, with evidence of a surgical cut at the end, you might being to wonder if this "razor gang" have finally pitched up.
Don't want to be a 'mack or a mullet in the next 20 years.