Atlantic pomfret

The Atlantic pomfret (Brama brama), also known as Ray's bream, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a pomfret of the family Bramidae. It is found in the Atlantic, Indian, and South Pacific Oceans, at depths down to 1,000 m (3,300 ft).

Atlantic pomfret
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Istiophoriformes
Family:	Bramidae
Genus:	Brama
Species:	B. brama
Binomial name
Brama brama (Bonnaterre, 1788)
Synonyms[2]
Sparus brama Bonnaterre, 1788 Sparus dentatus Berkenhout, 1789 Lepidotus catalonicus Asso, 1801 Brama raji Bloch & Schneider, 1801 Sparus raji (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) Sparus castaneola Lacepède, 1802 Sparus niger Turton, 1804 Lepodus saragus Rafinesque, 1810 Brama marina Fleming, 1828 Brama chilensis Guichenot, 1848 Lepidotus chilensis (Guichenot, 1848) Brama pinnasquamata Couch, 1849 Chaetodon umbratus Cabrera, Pérez & Haenseler, 1857 Toxotes squamosus Hutton, 1875 Brama squamosa (Hutton, 1875) Lepodus squamosus (Hutton, 1875)

Its length is between 40 and 100 cm (16 and 39 in). In South Africa, where it is a common bycatch of the hake fishery, it is generally known and sold as "angelfish",^[3] although it is not a true marine angelfish.^[4]

The Atlantic pomfret has very significant migration patterns^[5] which greatly depend on the temperature of intermediate waters, but are also affected by secondary reactions from density dependence and the climatic conditions of the surface. Although the species was first recorded in Irish waters in 1843, it was still regarded as scarce up until the late 1950s, but between the 1960s and 1970s large numbers were recorded.