Fusilier

fusilier a name used for fish of the snapper family, in the genus Paracaesio.

P. caeruleus, also known as the Japanese snapper, is an important food fish, although known only from S. Japan; it reaches a length of 50 cm (20"). P. xanthurus, the southern fusilier or yellowtail blue snapper, is a little smaller but has a wide distribution in the tropical Indo-Pacific, and from E. Australia up to S. Japan.

Tweedie and Harrison (1970) comment that these species are among the few economically important fish of the coral reefs.

They are taken by an exciting operation involving the positioning of a net by the reef and the driving of the fish into it by a team of swimming men, each holding a long string weighted at the bottom and flagged at intervals in its length with pieces of white cloth. These strings are jerked up and down and the moving flags scare the fish and drive them into the net. This strenuous mode of fishing is of Japanese origin and is still called by its Japanese name ‘muro ami’.