Family Gerreidae

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Family Gerreidae

• Mojarras
• Common species
• Spotfin Mojarra (Eucinostomus argenteus)

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Gerreidae Characteristics

• Highly protrusible jaw, compressed silvery body
• Use mouth for feeding on benthic invertebrates
• Passes sand out gill slits and captures prey on
  gill rakers
• The silver jenny (Eucinostomus gula) and spotfin
  mojarra (Eucinostomus argenteus) are almost
  indistinguishable

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Family Haemulidae

• Grunts
• Common species
• Tomtate (Haemulon aurolineatum)
• White Grunt (Haemulon plumeri)
• Pigfish (Orthopristis chrysoptera)

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Haemulidae Characteristics

• Beautiful schooling fish, usually found
  associated with reefs
• Small mouth and teeth, large molariform teeth on
  pharynx

French Grunts
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Diurnal Migrations

• Form diurnal aggregations on reefs and migrate to
  sand and grass beds to feed
• Interestingly, migrations always follow the same
  route
• Routes are not genetically inherited, but learned
  socially as cultural traditions

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We have to stop meeting like this!!
White Grunts
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White Grunt (Haemulon plumieri)

• Caught frequently in the S.E. U.S., one of the
  largest grunts (25 and 8lbs.)

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Tomtate (Haemulon aurolineatum)

• The smallest of the grunts it is not
  commercially viable

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Family Sparidae

• Porgies
• Common species
• Red Porgy (Pagrus pagrus)
• Whitebone Porgy (Calamus leucosteus)
• Sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus)
• Pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides)

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Sparidae Characteristics

• Continuous dorsal fin front jaw has incisor-like
  or canine teeth
• Grunt-like in appearance, but feeding habits are
  more diversified
• Have well-developed molariform teeth on
  pharyngeal jaws

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Red Porgy

• Was once one of NCs most valued reef fish but
  severely overfished in 1980s

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Pinfish

• Ubiquitous, omnivores (mostly plants)
• Larvae are found in estuaries in late winter and
  early spring