YOUNG JACK CREVALLES (CARANX SPECIES) OFF THE SOUTHEASTERN 

 ATLANTIC COAST OF THE UNITED STATES 



By Frederick H. Berry, Fishery Research Biologist 



BUREAU OF COMMERCIAL FISHERIES 



The family Carangidae is noted for the diversity 

 of body form of its species. Certain of these 

 species undergo an ontogenetic change of form in 

 having a deep-bodied larval stage and an elongated 

 adult shape that is inverse to the development of 

 many other fishes in which the larvae are narrow- 

 bodied forms and the depth generally increases as 

 the fish mature. 



The genus Caranx has cosmopolitan distribution 

 in tropical and subtropical waters, and extends 

 into more temperate waters. The young jack 

 crevalles furnish food for many surface-feeding 

 carnivores, and the adults are themselves preda- 

 tor}- on other fishes. In some areas they are 

 utilized as food fish or for bait, and everywhere 

 are recognized as respectable game fish. 



Five species of Caranx commonly occur in waters 

 off the Atlantic coast of the southeastern United 

 States: C. latus Agassiz, C. hippos (Linnaeus), C. 

 bartholomaei Cuvier, C. ruber (Bloch), and C. 

 crysos (Mitchill). Two other species, C. dentex 

 (Bloch and Schneider) and C. lugubris Poey, may 

 occur there, but no authentic records exist. Un- 

 questioned records of C. lugubris exist for Cuba, 

 the Bahamas, and Bermuda, and of C. dentexiov 

 Bermuda. Two other species of Carangidae, 

 Hemicaranx jasciatus (Cuvier) and Uraspis heidi 

 Fowler, are briefly considered relative to their 

 affinity to the genus Caranx. 



Nichols has published a series of papers (see 

 Literature Cited, p. 530) over the past several 

 decades, giving descriptions, comparisons, and 

 records of distribution for young Caranx in the 

 Western Atlantic. Ginsburg (1952) gave accounts 

 of late juveniles and adults of four of the species, 

 primarily from the Gulf of Mexico. Other in- 

 formation on the young of Caranx is meager, par- 

 ticularly in the area considered (off the south 

 Atlantic coast of the United States) . The nomen- 



Note.— Approved for publication, May 7, 1958. Fishery Bulletin 152. 



clature of five of the seven species is still in 

 question. 



The specimens of young Caranx taken on eight 

 of the nine cruises of the Theodore N. Gill during 

 1953-54 in the waters off the Atlantic coast of the 

 southeastern United States by the U. S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service's South Atlantic Fishery Investi- 

 gations represent the most complete series of young 

 of three of the species ever collected in this area. 

 This collection was supplemented by specimens 

 from the U. S. National Museum (USNM) , Uni- 

 versity of Florida Museum (UF), Bingham Oce- 

 anographic Collection (BOC), Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP), Chaplin 

 Bahaman Shore Fish Program (CBSFP), Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History (AMNH), Charleston 

 Museum (ChM), Bears Bluff Laboratories (BBL), 

 and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Gulf 

 Fisheries Exploration and Gear Research 

 (GFEGR) at Pascagoula, Miss., Gulf Fisheries 

 Investigations (GFI) at Galveston, Tex., and 

 Menhaden Investigations (MI) at Beaufort, N. C, 

 and personally acquired and local collections of the 

 South Atlantic Fishery Investigations (SAFI) at 

 Brunswick, Ga. 



Although concerned primarily with the Gill 

 collections and museum specimens from waters 

 off the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United 

 States, this discussion cannot be confined to that 

 area. Because the larvae of the five common 

 species of Caranx and the juveniles of three of 

 them apparently are associated with the Gulf 

 Stream in this area, it is quite likely that the 

 developing young in this area represent only a 

 portion of the population of each species, and that 

 the populations, associated with current systems, 

 extend from off the northern coast of South 

 America into the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of 

 Mexico, through the Florida Straits and along the 



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