Common name: Southern garfish, Dusky Garfish, Dusky Sea Garfish, Gardie, Garfish, Pencils, Sea Garfish, South Australian Garfish, Southern Sea Garfish, Western Sea Garfish

Japanese name: ミナミオーストラリアサヨリ

Scientific name: Hyporhamphus melanochir (Valenciennes, 1847)

Nigiri sushi detail: Southern garfish Nigiri sushi

Characteristics:

Southern garfish is distributed from Shark Bay in Western Australia, along the southern coast of Australia including Tasmanian waters, and as far east as Eden in New South Wales. They are particularly abundant throughout the gulf regions of South Australia. This species forms schools in shallow coastal waters up to 20 meters deep. A common pale greenish garfish with a broad silvery stripe along the mid side, a white belly, a reddish tip on the lower jaw, and a broad dusky margin on the caudal fin. It is a popular foodfish.

When substitute fish were rampant, they were used in conveyor belt sushi as Japanese halfbeak (Sayori).