The pelagic armorhead, pelagic armourhead, Richardson's boarfish, or southern boarfish, Pseudopentaceros richardsoni, is an armorhead of the genus Pseudopentaceros, found in the north and south Pacific Ocean, South Africa, South America, and the South Island of New Zealand, from the surface to depths of 300 metres on the continental shelf. Its length is between 30 and 50 cm.

As food

Because its spawning grounds were confined to a few seamounts in the central North Pacific, the pelagic armorhead was easily overfished. Soviet and Japanese trawlers took approximately 900,000 tons beginning in 1969; by 1984, the pelagic armorhead had been fished to commercial extinction. It has never been widely eaten in Europe or the United States.

References

• "Pseudopentaceros richardsoni". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=169700. Retrieved 18 April 2006.
• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Pseudopentaceros richardsoni" in FishBase. January 2006 version.
• Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand, (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 0-00-216987-8
• Tony Koslow, The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology, and Conservation of the Deep Sea. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.