Seriolella punctata (Forster 1801)

In New Zealand, spotted warehou are thought to undertake a southerly migration following spawning on the Chatham Rise in spring (Ref. 26998).

Oceanodromous. Migrating within oceans typically between spawning and different feeding areas, as tunas do. Migrations should be cyclical and predictable and cover more than 100 km.

Adult warehous inhabit continental shelf and slope waters (Ref. 6390). Small juveniles are pelagic (Ref. 6390). They inhabit offshore areas and are often associated with jellyfish (Scyphozoa) (Ref. 26498). Older juvenile warehou move inshore and large numbers of them are often found in bays and inlets (Ref. 6390).

Adults are usually demersal on the continental shelf and slope, occasionally occurring at the surface; subadults in surface waters, sometimes entering bays, while juveniles occur offshore (Ref. 9563). Reported from depths of 27 m (Ref. 58489) to 600 m (Ref. 9563). They form feeding and spawning aggregations. Spotted warehou are schooling species, usually aggregating close to the sea bed (Ref. 26498) although there is some evidence that they move into the middle water column at night (Ref. 30459). During spring-summer in New Zealand, adult and juvenile fish migrate to feed along the continental slope off the east and southeast coast of the South Island (Ref. 9072). Adults mainly eat planktonic tunicates (Ref. 6390).

fisheries: commercial

The silver warehou, Seriolella punctata, is a medusafish of the family Centrolophidae found in the southern Indian and southern Pacific oceans, at depths of between 100 and 650 m. Its length is up to about 65 cm.