Coastal trevally
Encyclopedia
The coastal trevally, Carangoides coeruleopinnatus (also known as the onion trevally, Japanese trevally and bluefin kingfish) is a species
of inshore marine
fish
in the jack family Carangidae
. The species is distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian
and west Pacific Ocean
s, from South Africa
in the west to Japan
and New Caledonia
in the east, reaching as far south as Australia
. The species is found on deep coastal reef
s, both in schools and as solitary individuals, where they prey on small midwater organisms including crustacean
s, small fish and cephalopod
s. The species is taken as bycatch in a number of fisheries throughout its range by a number of fishing methods and is of little commercial value, but is considered to be a good table fish
. A mistype in the original volume in which Eduard Rüppell
named the species led to the combination Carangoides caeruleopinnatus, which has incorrectly spread through the literature.
Carangoides
, one of a number of groups of fish referred to as jacks and trevallies. Carangoides is further classified in the family Carangidae
, itself part of the suborder Percoidei
and the order Perciformes
; the perch-like fishes.
The species was first scientifically described and named by the German naturalist
Eduard Rüppell
in 1830 based on a specimen collected from the waters of the Red Sea
off Saudi Arabia
, which was designated to be the holotype
. He named the new species Caranx coeruleopinnatus, with the species name translating to 'blue-finned', although the species shows no such colouration, and may be the result of some confusion by the author. In the volume in which the species is described, an apparent mistype produces the name Caranx caeruleopinnatus, which has also widely, albeit incorrectly, entered the scientific literature
. The species was transferred initially to the genus Citula, a now defunct genus of jacks, before moving to its current status in Carangoides. The species has also been independently renamed five times; the first as Carangoides ophthalmotaenia by Pieter Bleeker
in 1852 and most recently as Citula diversa by Gilbert Whitley in 1940. In 1924, a juvenile
specimen was named Caranx uii by Yojiro Wakiya, a name which became widespread throughout the literature, and was commonly known as the 'Japanese trevally', before being sunk into C. coeruleopinnatus in 1986 by William Smith-Vaniz.
The species is commonly known
as the 'coastal trevally' or 'coastal kingfish', with other commonly applied English names including 'onion trevally', 'Japanese trevally', 'bluefin kingfish', 'shortfin kingfish', and 'diverse trevally'.
. It is moderately large, growing to a recorded maximum of 40 cm, although more commonly seen at around 25 cm. The dorsal fin
is divided into two distinct sections, the first consisting of 8 spines, with the second consisting of a single spine followed by 20 to 23 soft rays. The lobe of the second dorsal fin is filamentous in juveniles, becoming shorter with age until at the adult stage, the lobe is shorter than the head length and the anal fin lobe. The anal fin consists of 2 detached spines followed by 1 spine anterior to 16 to 20 soft rays. The pelvic fin contains a single spine and 18 to 20 soft rays. The lateral line
has a moderate anterior arch, with the junction of the curved and straight section below the 12th to 14th dorsal ray. The straight section of the lateral line contains 16 to 20 scute
s, with the lateral line having 31 to 50 combined scale
s and scutes over its entire length. The breast is devoid of scales ventrally to behind the pelvic fin origin and up to the pectoral fin base, although in rare cases this is interrupted by a lateral band of scales. Both jaws contain bands of villiform teeth, with the bands becoming wider anteriorly. There are a total of 21 to 27 gill raker
s and 24 vertebrae.
In life, the coastal trevally is bluish green above, fading to a silvery grey on the underside, with the sides having many small yellow spots. There is a small dark blotch on the upper margin of the opercle
. The dorsal, anal and caudal fins are dusky, although the caudal is often slightly yellow, while the pectoral fins are pale yellow and the pelvic fins are hyaline
to grey. Juveniles have dark vertical bands which fade as the fish become adults, and become indistinct at larger sizes.
and west Pacific Ocean
s. Its westernmost limit is the east coast of Africa, from South Africa
and Madagascar
north to the Red Sea
and the Persian Gulf
, with the range extending east along the coast of India
, including Sri Lanka
. The species is distributed across the Asian coastline including China
and Thailand
, and throughout the South East Asian and Indonesia
n island chains extending to northern Australia
. In the Pacific Ocean, its range extends north to Taiwan
and Japan
, and east to a number of small island groups, including Tonga
, Samoa
and New Caledonia
.
Coastal trevally are rarely found close to shore, with adults inhabiting deep coastal reef
systems, and the species is also thought to live a pelagic lifestyle. Juveniles have been recorded in Natal
estuaries, and in shallow bays in northern Australia,
but the movements of the species are poorly understood. Like other species of jack, the coastal trevally is attracted to floating devices, with the fish occasionally caught by anglers around specially built FADs (fish attracting devices).
. The species is known to occur both in small shoal
s and individually, and is a plankton
ivorous fish, consuming small midwater organisms including krill
, mantis shrimp
, small fish and squid
. The mouth of the coastal trevally is soft, and the teeth fairly weak, which prevents the capture of larger prey items. It is a rather sluggish fish in comparison to other members of the Carangidae. Nothing is known of reproduction in the species, and its movements are also unknown.
The coastal trevally is of little or no importance to most fisheries throughout its range, occasionally taken as bycatch
in finfish and prawn
operations, using hook and line, gill nets and other various types of trap. Due to its deep reef nature, the species is of little interest to angler
s, and is rarely taken by them. The coastal trevally is considered to be a good table fish, however, and it has limited commercial value in Asia
.
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of inshore marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
in the jack family Carangidae
Carangidae
Carangidae is a family of fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, and scads.They are marine fish found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. The species is distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
and west Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
s, from South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in the west to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
in the east, reaching as far south as Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The species is found on deep coastal reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
s, both in schools and as solitary individuals, where they prey on small midwater organisms including crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s, small fish and cephalopod
Cephalopod
A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda . These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot...
s. The species is taken as bycatch in a number of fisheries throughout its range by a number of fishing methods and is of little commercial value, but is considered to be a good table fish
Fish (food)
Fish is a food consumed by many species, including humans. The word "fish" refers to both the animal and to the food prepared from it. Fish has been an important source of protein for humans throughout recorded history.-Terminology:...
. A mistype in the original volume in which Eduard Rüppell
Eduard Rüppell
Wilhelm Peter Eduard Simon Rüppell was a German naturalist and explorer. Rüppell is occasionally transliterated to "Rueppell" for the English alphabet....
named the species led to the combination Carangoides caeruleopinnatus, which has incorrectly spread through the literature.
Taxonomy and naming
The coastal trevally is formally classified within the genusGenus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Carangoides
Carangoides
Carangoides is a genus of tropical to subtropical marine fishes in the jack family, Carangidae. They are small to large sized, deep bodied fish characterised by a certain gill raker and jaw morphology, often appearing very similar to jacks in the genus Caranx...
, one of a number of groups of fish referred to as jacks and trevallies. Carangoides is further classified in the family Carangidae
Carangidae
Carangidae is a family of fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, and scads.They are marine fish found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, itself part of the suborder Percoidei
Percoidei
Percoidei is one of eighteen suborders of bony fish in the order Perciformes. Many commercially harvested fish species are contained in this suborder, including the snappers, jacks, whitings, groupers, bass, perches and porgies.-Divisions:...
and the order Perciformes
Perciformes
The Perciformes, also called the Percomorphi or Acanthopteri, is one of the largest orders of vertebrates, containing about 40% of all bony fish. Perciformes means perch-like. They belong to the class of ray-finned fish and comprise over 7,000 species found in almost all aquatic environments...
; the perch-like fishes.
The species was first scientifically described and named by the German naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
Eduard Rüppell
Eduard Rüppell
Wilhelm Peter Eduard Simon Rüppell was a German naturalist and explorer. Rüppell is occasionally transliterated to "Rueppell" for the English alphabet....
in 1830 based on a specimen collected from the waters of the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
off Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, which was designated to be the holotype
Holotype
A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...
. He named the new species Caranx coeruleopinnatus, with the species name translating to 'blue-finned', although the species shows no such colouration, and may be the result of some confusion by the author. In the volume in which the species is described, an apparent mistype produces the name Caranx caeruleopinnatus, which has also widely, albeit incorrectly, entered the scientific literature
Scientific literature
Scientific literature comprises scientific publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences, and within a scientific field is often abbreviated as the literature. Academic publishing is the process of placing the results of one's research into the...
. The species was transferred initially to the genus Citula, a now defunct genus of jacks, before moving to its current status in Carangoides. The species has also been independently renamed five times; the first as Carangoides ophthalmotaenia by Pieter Bleeker
Pieter Bleeker
Pieter Bleeker was a Dutch medical doctor and ichthyologist, famous for his work on the fishes of East Asia – Atlas Ichthyologique des Orientales Neerlandaises – which was published 1862–1877....
in 1852 and most recently as Citula diversa by Gilbert Whitley in 1940. In 1924, a juvenile
Juvenile (organism)
A juvenile is an individual organism that has not yet reached its adult form, sexual maturity or size. Juveniles sometimes look very different from the adult form, particularly in terms of their colour...
specimen was named Caranx uii by Yojiro Wakiya, a name which became widespread throughout the literature, and was commonly known as the 'Japanese trevally', before being sunk into C. coeruleopinnatus in 1986 by William Smith-Vaniz.
The species is commonly known
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...
as the 'coastal trevally' or 'coastal kingfish', with other commonly applied English names including 'onion trevally', 'Japanese trevally', 'bluefin kingfish', 'shortfin kingfish', and 'diverse trevally'.
Description
The coastal trevally is similar in body to most other jacks, having a nearly ovate, strongly compressed body, with the dorsal profile more convex than the ventral profile, with a moderately curved napeNape
The nape is the back of the neck. In technical anatomical/medical terminology, the nape is referred to by the word nucha, which also gives the adjective corresponding to "nape" in English, "nuchal"....
. It is moderately large, growing to a recorded maximum of 40 cm, although more commonly seen at around 25 cm. The dorsal fin
Dorsal fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...
is divided into two distinct sections, the first consisting of 8 spines, with the second consisting of a single spine followed by 20 to 23 soft rays. The lobe of the second dorsal fin is filamentous in juveniles, becoming shorter with age until at the adult stage, the lobe is shorter than the head length and the anal fin lobe. The anal fin consists of 2 detached spines followed by 1 spine anterior to 16 to 20 soft rays. The pelvic fin contains a single spine and 18 to 20 soft rays. The lateral line
Lateral line
The lateral line is a sense organ in aquatic organisms , used to detect movement and vibration in the surrounding water. Lateral lines are usually visible as faint lines running lengthwise down each side, from the vicinity of the gill covers to the base of the tail...
has a moderate anterior arch, with the junction of the curved and straight section below the 12th to 14th dorsal ray. The straight section of the lateral line contains 16 to 20 scute
Scute
A scute or scutum is a bony external plate or scale, as on the shell of a turtle, the skin of crocodilians, the feet of some birds or the anterior portion of the mesonotum in insects.-Properties:...
s, with the lateral line having 31 to 50 combined scale
Scale (zoology)
In most biological nomenclature, a scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal's skin to provide protection. In lepidopteran species, scales are plates on the surface of the insect wing, and provide coloration...
s and scutes over its entire length. The breast is devoid of scales ventrally to behind the pelvic fin origin and up to the pectoral fin base, although in rare cases this is interrupted by a lateral band of scales. Both jaws contain bands of villiform teeth, with the bands becoming wider anteriorly. There are a total of 21 to 27 gill raker
Gill raker
Gill rakers in fish are bony or cartilaginous processes that project from the branchial arch and are involved with filter feeding tiny prey. They are not to be confused with the gill filaments that compose the bony part of the gill. Rakers are usually present in two rows, projecting from both the...
s and 24 vertebrae.
In life, the coastal trevally is bluish green above, fading to a silvery grey on the underside, with the sides having many small yellow spots. There is a small dark blotch on the upper margin of the opercle
Operculum (fish)
The operculum of a bony fish is the hard bony flap covering and protecting the gills. In most fish, the rear edge of the operculum roughly marks the division between the head and the body....
. The dorsal, anal and caudal fins are dusky, although the caudal is often slightly yellow, while the pectoral fins are pale yellow and the pelvic fins are hyaline
Hyaline
The term hyaline denotes a substance with a glass-like appearance.-Histopathology:In histopathological medical usage, a hyaline substance appears glassy and pink after being stained with haematoxylin and eosin — usually it is an acellular, proteinaceous material...
to grey. Juveniles have dark vertical bands which fade as the fish become adults, and become indistinct at larger sizes.
Distribution and habitat
The coastal trevally is distributed broadly throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the IndianIndian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
and west Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
s. Its westernmost limit is the east coast of Africa, from South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
north to the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
and the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
, with the range extending east along the coast of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, including Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. The species is distributed across the Asian coastline including China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, and throughout the South East Asian and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n island chains extending to northern Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. In the Pacific Ocean, its range extends north to Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and east to a number of small island groups, including Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
, Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
and New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
.
Coastal trevally are rarely found close to shore, with adults inhabiting deep coastal reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
systems, and the species is also thought to live a pelagic lifestyle. Juveniles have been recorded in Natal
Natal, South Africa
Natal is a region in South Africa. It stretches between the Indian Ocean in the south and east, the Drakensberg in the west, and the Lebombo Mountains in the north. The main cities are Pietermaritzburg and Durban...
estuaries, and in shallow bays in northern Australia,
but the movements of the species are poorly understood. Like other species of jack, the coastal trevally is attracted to floating devices, with the fish occasionally caught by anglers around specially built FADs (fish attracting devices).
Biology and fishery
The coastal trevally is poorly studied, and as such there is little information regarding its biology and ecologyEcology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
. The species is known to occur both in small shoal
Shoal
Shoal, shoals or shoaling may mean:* Shoal, a sandbank or reef creating shallow water, especially where it forms a hazard to shipping* Shoal draught , of a boat with shallow draught which can pass over some shoals: see Draft...
s and individually, and is a plankton
Plankton
Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...
ivorous fish, consuming small midwater organisms including krill
Krill
Krill is the common name given to the order Euphausiacea of shrimp-like marine crustaceans. Also known as euphausiids, these small invertebrates are found in all oceans of the world...
, mantis shrimp
Mantis shrimp
Mantis shrimp or stomatopods are marine crustaceans, the members of the order Stomatopoda. They are neither shrimp nor mantids, but receive their name purely from the physical resemblance to both the terrestrial praying mantis and the shrimp. They may reach in length, although exceptional cases of...
, small fish and squid
Squid
Squid are cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, a mantle, and arms. Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs and two, usually longer, tentacles...
. The mouth of the coastal trevally is soft, and the teeth fairly weak, which prevents the capture of larger prey items. It is a rather sluggish fish in comparison to other members of the Carangidae. Nothing is known of reproduction in the species, and its movements are also unknown.
The coastal trevally is of little or no importance to most fisheries throughout its range, occasionally taken as bycatch
Bycatch
The term “bycatch” is usually used for fish caught unintentionally in a fishery while intending to catch other fish. It may however also indicate untargeted catch in other forms of animal harvesting or collecting...
in finfish and prawn
Prawn
Prawns are decapod crustaceans of the sub-order Dendrobranchiata. There are 540 extant species, in seven families, and a fossil record extending back to the Devonian...
operations, using hook and line, gill nets and other various types of trap. Due to its deep reef nature, the species is of little interest to angler
Angling
Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...
s, and is rarely taken by them. The coastal trevally is considered to be a good table fish, however, and it has limited commercial value in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
.