Wahoo

Availability & Seasonality

The supply (and price) of fresh ono is as limited and erratic as that of locally-caught mahimahi. Not an especially abundant fish, ono is most available in Hawaii during the summer and fall (May-October)

Product Forms & Yields

Local fishermen market their ono as fresh, whole fish. Most is purchased by upscale restaurants in Hawaii and on the mainland. Some restaurants buy fillets from intermediary suppliers, but others prefer to receive the fish headed and gutted to retain better quality. Ono Fillets have less blood-line than similar pelagic fish which means they have a higher yield from purchased fillets to useable portions. Therefore, about 60 to 65% of whole fish weight can be recovered as fillet. Although one of the best fish for smoking, ono is too expensive to be put to this use in Hawaii.

Shelf Life & Quality Control

The shelf life of fresh ono is relatively short — 10 days when properly cared for. Ono keeps longer if stored whole (especially if hung head down) and not filleted until shortly before use. When the fish is headed and gutted, the collar bone and belly areas are exposed to bacteria which can then cause accelerated deterioration of the remaining flesh. The first external evidence of deterioration in a whole ono is discoloration of the skin around the head and gill plates and a general softening of the flesh. In a dressed fish, discoloration of the flesh Ono (Wahoo) exposed around the collarbone would indicate a loss of quality. Poor quality fillets have opaque, milky flesh or they may be cracked.

Wahoo grow fast, up to 8 feet and 158 pounds

Ono, Kingfish, Tiger Fish, Ocean Barracuda, Ono Fish, Peto (German), Guarapucu, Thazard Batard (French), Maccarello Striato (Italian), Kamasu-sawara (Japan

Wahoo or Ono, which means “delicious” in Hawaiian, is a pelagic fish found in all the world’s tropical and subtropical waters including the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Also known as the Pacific kingfish, it is closely related to the king mackerel and is a highly prized recreational fish because of its speed and quality. Wahoo are found near the surface in tropical and subtropical waters around the world. Wahoo live in tropical waters year-round but are also found in higher latitudes during the summer. They’re frequently found alone or in small, loosely connected groups rather than in compact schools. They’re also often found near banks, pinnacles, and flotsam (natural debris drifting in the ocean). An oceanic, epipelagic species frequently solitary or forming small loose aggregations rather than compact schools. Feed on fishes and squids. Eggs and larvae are pelagic. An important sport fish in some areas

The Wahoo is a cousin of mackerel, wahoo is found in warm oceans around the world. In the Pacific, they’re harvested as non-target catch in troll and longline fisheries targeting tunas based out of Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, and Saipan. Most of the wahoo in the U.S. market comes from Hawaii, where the fish is nicknamed “Ono,” the Hawaiian word for “delicious.” A small amount of wahoo is harvested in U.S. fisheries along the Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico. No regulations currently apply to wahoo specifically – their biology makes them resilient to fishing pressure and catch trends have so far indicated that regulations are not yet necessary. However, several regulations are in place to reduce the impact of troll and longline fisheries on other species, and the fisheries are monitored through logbooks, observer coverage (longline fishery), port sampling, and landing receipts. Wahoo are steel blue above and pale blue below. They’re covered with small scales and have a series of 25 to 30 irregular blackish-blue vertical bars on their sides. Wahoo have large mouths with strong, triangular, compressed and finely serrated teeth. Their snouts are about as long as the rest of their heads. Although they can reach 8 feet in length, wahoo are commonly between 3.3 and 5.4 feet long. Wahoo grow fast, up to 8 feet and 158 pounds, and have a short life span, up to 9 years. Males are able to reproduce when they reach 2.8 feet in length; females sexually mature when they reach 3.3 feet. They’re usually about a year old at this size. Wahoo spawn year-round in tropical waters and during the summer in higher latitudes, including Hawaii. Individual wahoo spawn multiple times throughout the spawning season. They’re very productive, releasing millions of eggs per year to compensate for eggs that might not survive to adulthood. Wahoo mainly feed on fish, including frigate mackerel, butterfish, porcupine fish, and round herring. They generally compete with tuna for the same kind of food. Scientists have theorized that wahoo is able to eat fish larger than itself by using its sharp teeth to render large prey into bite-size pieces. A number of predators that share the wahoo’s habitat feed on young wahoo. Dorsal spines (total): 23 - 27; Dorsal soft rays (total): 12-16; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 12 - 14; Vertebrae: 62 - 64. Mouth large with strong, triangular, compressed and finely serrate teeth. Snout about as long as the rest of head. Posterior part of maxilla completely concealed under preorbital bone. Gill rakers absent. Interpelvic process small and bifid. Swim bladder present. Body covered with small scales. No anterior corselet developed. The back is iridescent bluish green; the sides silvery with 24 to 30 cobalt blue vertical bars which extend to below the lateral line.

Spawning seems to extend over a long period; fish in different maturity stages are frequently caught at the same time.

Summary of Distribution: Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans: in tropical and subtropical waters, including the Caribbean and Mediterranean seas.
Note: Distribution range colors indicate degree of suitability of habitat which can be interpreted as probabilities of occurrence (fishbase.org)

Trolling A trolling boat has multiple outriggers, poles and lines attached that use lures dragged across the ocean surface at speeds of 4 – 10 knots. Large beefy hooks are used with special durable lures allowing the fisherman to easily unhook the gamefish that has been caught and quickly get their lines back into the water. The larger the lures, the larger the potential fish, the larger the hooks. A tuna boat will usually make slow wide circles when trolling. A billfish boat will usually work ledges, fathom lines, zig zag area coordinates or make trolling circles if bait or a porpoise school is located and/or if they are fishing a FAD..

	Pelagic Longline This fishery uses a longline to catch a variety of pelagic fish on the high seas such as tuna and swordfish. A deep-set longline is used to primarily target tuna and a shallow-set longline is used to target swordfish or mixed species including bigeye, Albacore and yellowfin tuna. Baited hooks are attached to a line that floats in the ocean using buoys and flagpoles.

Many Wahoo are hooked on heavy tackle, incidentally to Billfishing. Best choices, however, are light to medium ocean trolling outfits with lines up to 30-pound test; 50-pound isn't too heavy for good sport with big specimens. A few have been caught by deep jigging or ocean casting with spinning and baitcasting tackle - even fly tackle on rare occasion. Most productive bait is a weighted feather or similar trolling lure, rigged in combination with a whole small baitfish or large strip. Surface trolling is sometimes effective, but deep trolling is much more likely to produce a Wahoo.

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