[Mullet; Family Mullidae]
Mullets are a fairly large family of mostly salt water fish, They have always been very popular in the Mediterranean area and costal Europe but little used in North America. They are now very common in the Asian markets here in Southern California. Confusingly, the best know "mullet", the Red Mullet, is not a mullet at all but a Goatfish.
More on Varieties of Fish
(very large page).
This is the best known "Mullet", but it's not actually a Mullet, it's a
Goatfish.
[Flathead Mullet, Striped Mullet, Black Mullet; Harder (German, Dutch); Mugil cephalus]
Found worldwide in coastal waters, this fish can grow to 47 inches and
26 pounds but the photo specimen was 15-1/2 inches, weighing 1 pound
6-1/2 ounces. They are caught wild and farmed and are not considered
threatened. They are not common in North American markets except along
the Southeast Coast, but are a very important commercial fish in many parts
of the world. It is a good eating fish - look for it in Philippine and
Southeast Asian fish markets.
Details and Cooking.
[Dajao, Trucha, Lisa, Lise de Rio (Spanish); Tepemechín (Costa Rica);
Dajaus monticola syn Agonostomus monticola]
This is the only member of the Mullet family which spends its entire adult
life in fresh water, from sea level to over 2000 feet. It is found in rivers
from North Carolina around the Gulf of Mexico to Venezuela, and on the
Islands of the Caribbean. It can grow to 14 inches, and is a subsistence
catch, not commercial, IUCN Red List LC (Least Concern), but overfished
in Costa Rica.
Details and Cooking.
Photo by Luisfgarciaf licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike v3.0 Unported.
[Pratiqueira (Brazil); Mugil curema]
This is a small mullet, commonly 12 inches long, but rarely larger, up to
35 inches and 24 ounces. It is common on the tropical
and warm temperate east coasts of the Americas, including the Carabbean, but
is less common on the western coast of the Africa. It is also found on the
tropical and subtropical western coasts of the Americas. It is sometimes used
as a substitute for Gray Mullet, but more often as bait. It is farmed and
IUCN Red List LC (Least Concern) in the wild. See
Gray Mullet for Cooking Details.
Photo by Caio Henrique G. Cutrim licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike v3.0 Unported.
[Harder (Afrikaans); Liza richardsonii]
This fish is native to costal waters around the southern tip of
Africa and off the west coast of Madagascar. It can grow to 18 inches
but is more commonly around 12 inches. It was much used by early
Dutch settlers in South Africa, but was probably already much used
by the natives. It is fished commercially, and IUCN listed as NE
(Not Evaluated).
Details and Cooking.
Photo by Frederick Hermanus Van der Bank, University of
Johannesburg Contributed to the Public Domain.