South African mullet

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
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.

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). 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.

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

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.

See also

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