Almaco jack
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| Almaco jack | ||||||||||||||
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| Seriola rivoliana A Valenciennes, 1833 |
The Almaco jack, Seriola rivoliana, is a game fish of the family, Carangidae. They feed, both day and night, on other, smaller, fish, such as baitfish. Almaco jack are also known to eat small squid.
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[edit] Taxonomy
Achille Valenciennes, and Georges Cuvier have both been credited by various scouces with describing the Almaco jack in 1833 even though Cuvier died in 1832. This was possible because Valenciennes and Cuvier worked together on describing a large number fish species, most notably in the 22 volume Histoire naturelle des poissons, (Natural History of Fish) which was published, as a whole, long after the death of Cuvier because Valenciennes continued to work on the project after the death of his partner.
[edit] Description
The Almaco jack are known to have less elongated, more flattened bodies than most species of jack. Their dorsal fin and anal fins are elongated, and have a definite sickle shape to their outer edges. The dorsal fin of the Almaco jack also separates it from other jacks in that the first rays of the dorsal fin's longest parts are nearly twice as long as the dorsal spines.
[edit] Coloration
Almaco jack are generally dusky-colored with faint amber or olive colored stripes running down their sides. Their upper bodies and lower fins are usually bark brown or dark blue-green. The belly of the Almaco jack is much lighter colored and has been known to look brassy or lavender colored. The nuchal bar on adults is dark colored along with most of the fins. Exceptions are the pelvic fins which are white on the ventral sides.
[edit] Distribution and habitat
The Almaco jack is a pelagic species that can be found in small groups on slopes and off of reefs at depths from 5 to 160 meters. They are also known to visit wrecks more often than most other species of jack. In the Indian to the west Pacific oceans, Almaco jack can be found from Kenya to South Africa and have been spotted off Mariana, Wake island, Ryuku island, Kermadec Islands and New Caledonia. In the eastern Pacific, Almaco jack are known from California to Peru and the Galapagos islands. In the western Atlantic, they are known mostly from Cape Cod to northern Argentina although they are rare off North and South Carolina. Almaco jack are not as well-known in the Eastern Atlantic as they are in the rest of the world. Almaco have been seen off the coast of Great Britain and off Lampedusa in the Mediterranean sea.
[edit] Behavior
Almaco jack are known for their stamina, which makes them a prime target for deep sea fishermen. They remove skin based parasites by rubbing against the rough skin of passing sharks. Almaco jack have also rubbed against passing scuba divers because they mistake them for sharks. [1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Seriola rivoliana, Almaco Jack - MarineBio.org. Retrieved Monday, January 21, 2008, from http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=442
[edit] References
- Seriola rivoliana, Almaco Jack - MarineBio.org. Retrieved Monday, January 21, 2008, from http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=442.
- IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 21 January 2008.
