The Jack Family – Carangidae

There are currently FORTY-NINE members of the Jack or Carangidae Family, seventeen from the Atlantic Ocean, twenty-six from the Pacific Ocean and six from the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, are presented in this website:

FROM THE ATLANTIC (18):

FROM THE ATLANTIC and PACIFIC (6):

FROM THE PACIFIC (26):

The fish of the Jack or Carangidae Family are known collectively in Mexico’s fishing areas as jureles and pámpanos. The family is very large and includes the Jacks, Amberjacks, Crevalles, Jack-Mackerels, Leatherjacks, Lookdowns, Pilotfish, Pompanos, Scads, and Trevallies with more than one hundred fifty global species that have been placed in thirty genera found in all tropical and subtropical seas. They are schooling pelagic fish with large continental distributions and are normally found near the surface far off shore. The Jacks are generally silvery in color being darker dorsally and lighter ventrally. They range from 30 cm (12 inches) to 1.7 meter (5 feet 7 inches) in length and from 0.5 kg (1 lb) to 41 kg (90 lbs) in weight. They have widely differing body shapes. Most are powerful mid-water swimmers characterized by streamlined compressed aerodynamic bodies with slender tail bases and deeply forked caudal fins with equal lobes. Their heads vary from moderately long and rounded to short, deep, and very compressed with eyes that are small to large. Their snouts are pointed to blunt and they have large gill openings. Their anal and dorsal fins are low but often have elongated rays at the front. Their anal fin has 2 standalone spines (a key to identify this family) followed by 1 spine, and 15 to 39 rays that are short to elongated in length. Their lateral line is normally arched or elevated above the pectoral fins and straight posteriorly extending into the caudal fin. Many Jacks have prominent scutes on the rear portion of their lateral line. Their bodies are covered with small scales.

The Jacks are voracious predators feeding primarily on small fish, however, some species also consume crustaceans and mollusks. The Scads within the family mainly consume planktonic invertebrates. Although not strictly reef fish, Jacks are common over rocky structures, along the edge of reefs, and sometimes adjacent to steep slopes and large “drop-offs”. They frequently travel in large schools and roam considerable distances, following schools of smaller bait fish. They spawn pelagically, releasing large numbers of tiny buoyant eggs that travel the globe, carried by currents. Most Jacks are highly esteemed as food fish and are targeted by both commercial and sport fishermen. They are considered to be very important commercial fish with annual catches in excess of 1 million tons from the western central Pacific alone where they are caught via longlines, purse seines, traps and trawls. Fish form the Caranx, Seriola, and Trachinotus genera are highly regarded as sportsfish.

Island Jack, Carangoides orthogrammus, a representative member of the Jack or Carangidae Family. This photo can also be found on page 331 of a book entitled “Fil-O-Fish”, a waterproof handbook of Australian fish where the Island Jack is known locally as the Thicklip Trevally and found along the eastern, northern, and western coasts of Australia.

JUVENILES!  Very small small jacks show up on occasion either on the high seas or in bait nets and trying to determine their identity is a real task and is exceedingly difficult.  I have included two photographs below with one tentative identification made by H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.  They are included here in to “start the ball rolling” in that the more photographs of these types of small fish that can be made available will eventually allow us to sort them out.

Bigeye Scad, Selar crumenophthalmus, Juvenile. Fish collected from coastal waters off Point Palmilla, Baja California Sur, April 2009. Length: 2.6 cm (1.0 inch). Tentative identification.

Unknown. Fish collected from coastal waters off Gonzaga Bay, Baja California, June 2016. Length: 2.6 cm (1.0 inch). Catch and photograph courtesy of Chris Wheaton, Fullerton, California.  Note: some of the likely candidates – the Amberstripe Scad, the Mackerel Scad, the Shortfin Scad and the Jack Mackerel which is not known to waters of the northern Sea of Cortez.

Unknown. Fish collected from coastal waters off Point Palmilla, Baja California, June 2013. Length: 2.6 cm (1.0 inch).