1.
Crevalle jack
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The crevalle jack, Caranx hippos is a common species of large marine fish classified within the jack family, Carangidae. It is distinguishable from similar species by its body, fin colouration. It is one of the largest fish in the genus Caranx, growing to a known length of 124 cm. The crevalle jack inhabits both inshore and offshore waters to depths of around 350 m, predominantly over reefs, bays, lagoons, dietary shifts with both age, location and season have been demonstrated, which led some researchers to postulate the species is indiscriminant in its feeding habits. The crevalle jack reaches maturity at 55 cm in males and 66 cm in females, with spawning taking place year round, the larval and juvenile growth has been extensively studied, with the oldest known individual 17 years of age. The crevalle jack is an important species to commercial fisheries throughout its range and it is taken by a variety of netting methods, including purse nets, seines and gill nets, as well as hook-and-line methods. The crevalle jack is also a revered gamefish, taken both by lures and bait, the species is considered of good to poor quality table fare, and is sold fresh, frozen, or preserved, or as fishmeal or oil at market. The crevalle jack is closely related to both the Pacific crevalle jack and the longfin crevalle jack, the latter of which has been confused with the true crevalle jack until recently. The crevalle jack is classified within the genus Caranx, one of a number of known as the jacks or trevallies. Caranx itself is part of the jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae. The species belongs to what William Smith-Vaniz and Ken Carpenter refer to as the Caranx hippos complex, the crevalle jack was the first species of its genus to be scientifically described and named, and is also the type species of the genus Caranx. It was described and named in 1766 by the famed Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus, based on the specimen taken off the coast of the Carolinas. He named the species Scomber hippos, placing it in the mackerel genus Scomber, the specific epithet means horse in Latin, with Scomber hippos literally translating in English as horse mackerel, which has become a common name for many species of carangid. As the state of fish taxonomy progressed, the species was transferred to both Caranx and Carangus, with the name Caranx hippos now accepted, there has been extensive discussion in the scientific literature regarding the possible conspecifity of the Pacific crevalle jack, Caranx caninus, with Caranx hippos. Arguments ranged from the species being conspecific, subspecific or as individual species and this led to the creation of two trinomial names, Caranx hippos hippos and Caranx hippos tropicus. The former was an attempt to separate the subspecies on each side of the Americas, the species most often used common name, crevalle jack is based on the word cavalla, an earlier word used for the jacks. Other names include common jack, black-tailed trevally, couvalli jack, black cavalli, yellow cavalli and a host of generic names, such as horse mackerel and crevalle. The crevalle jack is one of the largest members of Caranx, growing to a maximum length of 125 cm
2.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
3.
Animal
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Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals
4.
Chordate
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Chordates are deuterostomes, as during the embryo development stage the anus forms before the mouth. They are also bilaterally symmetric coelomates, in the case of vertebrate chordates, the notochord is usually replaced by a vertebral column during development, and they may have body plans organized via segmentation. There are also additional extinct taxa, the Vertebrata are sometimes considered as a subgroup of the clade Craniata, consisting of chordates with a skull, the Craniata and Tunicata compose the clade Olfactores. Of the more than 65,000 living species of chordates, the worlds largest and fastest animals, the blue whale and peregrine falcon respectively, are chordates, as are humans. Fossil chordates are known from at least as early as the Cambrian explosion, Hemichordata, which includes the acorn worms, has been presented as a fourth chordate subphylum, but it now is usually treated as a separate phylum. The Hemichordata, along with the Echinodermata, form the Ambulacraria, the Chordata and Ambulacraria form the superphylum Deuterostomia, composed of the deuterostomes. Attempts to work out the relationships of the chordates have produced several hypotheses. All of the earliest chordate fossils have found in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna. Because the fossil record of early chordates is poor, only molecular phylogenetics offers a prospect of dating their emergence. However, the use of molecular phylogenetics for dating evolutionary transitions is controversial and it has also proved difficult to produce a detailed classification within the living chordates. Attempts to produce family trees shows that many of the traditional classes are paraphyletic. While this has been known since the 19th century, an insistence on only monophyletic taxa has resulted in vertebrate classification being in a state of flux. Although the name Chordata is attributed to William Bateson, it was already in prevalent use by 1880, ernst Haeckel described a taxon comprising tunicates, cephalochordates, and vertebrates in 1866. Though he used the German vernacular form, it is allowed under the ICZN code because of its subsequent latinization, among the vertebrate sub-group of chordates the notochord develops into the spine, and in wholly aquatic species this helps the animal to swim by flexing its tail. In fish and other vertebrates, this develops into the spinal cord, the pharynx is the part of the throat immediately behind the mouth. In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, a muscular tail that extends backwards behind the anus. This is a groove in the wall of the pharynx. In filter-feeding species it produces mucus to gather food particles, which helps in transporting food to the esophagus and it also stores iodine, and may be a precursor of the vertebrate thyroid gland
5.
Actinopterygii
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Actinopterygii /ˌæktᵻnˌɒptəˈrɪdʒi. aɪ/, or the ray-finned fishes, constitute a class or subclass of the bony fishes. These actinopterygian fin rays attach directly to the proximal or basal skeletal elements, the radials, numerically, actinopterygians are the dominant class of vertebrates, comprising nearly 99% of the over 30,000 species of fish. They are ubiquitous throughout freshwater and marine environments from the sea to the highest mountain streams. Extant species can range in size from Paedocypris, at 8 mm, to the ocean sunfish, at 2,300 kg. Ray-finned fishes occur in variant forms. The main features of a typical ray-finned fish are shown in the diagram at the left. In nearly all ray-finned fish, the sexes are separate, development then proceeds with a free-swimming larval stage. However other patterns of ontogeny exist, with one of the commonest being sequential hermaphroditism, in most cases this involves protogyny, fish starting life as females and converting to males at some stage, triggered by some internal or external factor. This may be advantageous as females become less prolific as they age while male fecundity increases with age, protandry, where a fish converts from male to female, is much less common than protogyny. Most families use external rather than internal fertilization, of the oviparous teleosts, most do not provide parental care. Viviparity is relatively rare and is found in about 6% of teleost species, male territoriality preadapts a species for evolving male parental care. There are a few examples of fish that self-fertilise, the mangrove rivulus is an amphibious, simultaneous hermaphrodite, producing both eggs and spawn and having internal fertilisation. This mode of reproduction may be related to the habit of spending long periods out of water in the mangrove forests it inhabits. Males are occasionally produced at temperatures below 19 °C and can fertilise eggs that are spawned by the female. This maintains genetic variability in a species that is otherwise highly inbred, the earliest known fossil actinopterygiian is Andreolepis hedei, dating back 420 million years. Remains have been found in Russia, Sweden, and Estonia, actinopterygians are divided into the subclasses Chondrostei and Neopterygii. The Neopterygii, in turn, are divided into the infraclasses Holostei and Teleostei, during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic the teleosts in particular diversified widely, and as a result, 96% of all known fish species are teleosts. The cladogram shows the groups of actinopterygians and their relationship to the terrestrial vertebrates that evolved from a related group of fish
6.
Perciformes
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Perciformes, also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, are the largest order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of all bony fish. They belong to the class of ray-finned fish, and comprise over 10,000 species found in almost all aquatic ecosystems, the order contains about 160 families, which is the most of any order within the vertebrates. It is also the most variably sized order of vertebrates, ranging from the 7-mm Schindleria brevipinguis to the marlin in the Makaira genus and they first appeared and diversified in the Late Cretaceous. Among the well-known members of group are cichlids, California sheephead, bluegill, damselfish, snappers, bass. The dorsal and anal fins are divided into anterior spiny and posterior soft-rayed portions, the pelvic fins usually have one spine and up to five soft rays, positioned unusually far forward under the chin or under the belly. Scales are usually ctenoid, although sometimes they are cycloid or otherwise modified, as traditionally defined before the introduction of cladistics, the Perciformes are almost certainly paraphyletic. Other orders that should possibly be included as suborders are the Scorpaeniformes, Tetraodontiformes, of the presently recognized suborders, several may be paraphyletic, as well. These are grouped by suborder/superfamily, generally following the text Fishes of the World
7.
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
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Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, as he is known in Europe, was a nineteenth-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a man in the United States, ultimately settling in Ohio in 1815, where he made notable contributions to botany, zoology. He also contributed to the study of ancient Mesoamerican linguistics, in addition to work he had completed in Europe. Rafinesque was eccentric, and is portrayed as an erratic genius. He was an autodidact who excelled in fields of knowledge, as a zoologist, botanist, writer. He wrote prolifically on such topics as anthropology, biology, geology, and linguistics. Today, scholars agree that he was far ahead of his time in many areas, among his theories was that ancestors of Native Americans had migrated by the Bering Sea from Asia to North America. Rafinesque was born on October 22,1783 in Galata, a suburb of Constantinople and his father F. G. Rafinesque was a French merchant from Marseilles, his mother M. Schmaltz was of German descent and born in Constantinople. His father died in Philadelphia about 1793, Rafinesque spent his youth in Marseilles, and was mostly self-educated, he never attended university. By the age of twelve, he had begun collecting plants for a herbarium, by fourteen, he taught himself perfect Greek and Latin because he needed to follow footnotes in the books he was reading in his paternal grandmothers libraries. In 1802, at the age of nineteen, Rafinesque sailed to Philadelphia in the United States with his younger brother and they traveled through Pennsylvania and Delaware, where he made the acquaintance of most of the young nations few botanists. In 1805 Rafinesque returned to Europe with his collection of specimens, and settled in Palermo, Sicily. He became so successful in trade that he retired by age twenty-five, for a time Rafinesque also worked as secretary to the American consul. During his stay in Sicily, he studied plants and fishes and he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1808. After their son died in 1815, he left her and returned to the United States, when his ship Union foundered near the coast of Connecticut, he lost all his books and all his specimens. Settling in New York, Rafinesque became a member of the newly established Lyceum of Natural History. In 1817 his book Florula Ludoviciana or A Flora of the State of Louisiana was strongly criticized by fellow botanists, by 1818, he had collected and named more than 250 new species of plants and animals. Slowly he was rebuilding his collection of objects from nature, in 1819 Rafinesque became professor of botany at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he also gave private lessons in French, Italian and Spanish
8.
Alectis
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Alectis is a genus of fish in the family Carangidae containing three extant species, all of which are large marine fishes. They are commonly known as threadfish, diamond trevallies and occasionally pompanos, Alectis is one of 33 genera in the jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae. The Carangidae are perciform fishes in the suborder Percoidei, the first fish in the genus to be described was Alectis ciliaris under the genus name of Zeus, part of the dory family. Lacépède recognized the species was not a dory and assigned it to a new genus, Gallus, in 1815, Rafinesque proposed the name Alectis, into which three species were eventually placed. Georges Cuvier proposed a name, Scyris for the genus in 1829. The name Alectis is derived from one of three Erinyes in the Greek mythology, daughter of Acheronte with a terrible rage, a single species has been identified the fossil record, Alectis simus, from the Eocene period of England. It was found alongside a number of extinct and extant carangid genera including Caranx and Usacaranx and they are generally a silver colour, with pale green to hyaline fins. A. indica is the largest of the genus, growing to a reported 165 m and 25 kg in weight, the genus has a circum-tropical distribution, with adults generally restricted to reefs in coastal areas down to 100 m, while juveniles are often pelagic. All three are predators of small fishes, cephalopods and crustaceans, a little is known of their reproductive habits and larval phases, with spawning occurring during daylight between pairs. The genus is of importance to both commercial and subsistence fisheries, with the species generally not numerous enough to warrant a specific fishery. All species are considered game fish, attaining large sizes. The flesh of the genus is considered very good for culinary purposes. In Singapore, A. indica has successfully bred in aquaculture for food production in relatively low numbers. Juveniles are occasionally used in aquariums, noted for their filamentous anal and dorsal fins
9.
Alepes
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Alepes is a genus containing five extant species of tropical marine fishes in the jack family, Carangidae. They are commonly known as scads, a term applied to many genera of carangid fishes. Their body form, however, differs from these other scads by being much more ovate in shape, more similar to the larger jacks taken as game fish and they are found in coastal waters throughout the Indo-West Pacific region. Alepes is a genus containing five extant and one extinct species and it is part of the jack family, Carangidae, a group of perciform fish in the suborder Percoidei. Recent phylogenetic studies using molecular information have placed Alepes in the subfamily Caranginae, trachinus was invalid, however, as it was already in use for a genus of weevers. This makes A. melanoptera the type species of the genus, the other species currently placed in Alepes were not directly classified in the genus, but were transferred from other, often distantly related genera. Many of these species have numerous junior synonyms, Alepes comes from the Greek word alepis, without scales. A single species has been identified from the record, Alepes pin. This area was part of the Indian Ocean which extended well into Europe at the time. The other species are more often encountered at sizes below 20 centimetres. They have strongly compressed ovate to oblong shaped bodies, with fin arrangements much like the rest of the Carangidae and they have two dorsal fins, the first consisting of weak spines and the second of a single spine followed by a number of soft rays. The anal fin has two detached spines anterior to the section which consists of one spine and a number of soft rays. Their lateral lines have a moderate to strong anterior curve, with scutes present on the section of the lateral line. They are all a blue-green-grey above, fading to white below. Only one, A. kleinni has bands or markings, the fish in Alepes are all predators, taking a range of crustaceans including copepods, decapods, prawns and shrimp, as well as small fish. At least one species shows a change in feeding intensity over the period of a year, the reproduction of most species is unstudied, except for A. kleinii. This species spawns on an event over a period of a few months, releasing small transparent. Natural spawning behavior in the genus is unknown, the members of Alepes are all distributed in the tropical to subtropical regions of the Indo-West Pacific region
10.
Cleftbelly trevally
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The cleftbelly trevally is a species of tropical marine fish of the jack family, Carangidae. The species inhabits coastal waters throughout the Indo-West Pacific region from South Africa in the west to Japan in the east and it is not a large fish, growing to a maximum recorded length of 26.5 cm. Cleftbelly trevally are fish, taking a variety of small crustaceans. The species is of importance to fisheries throughout its range. The cleftbelly trevally is the species in the genus Atropus. The carangids are Perciform fishes in the suborder Percoidei, bloch and Schneider placed the species in the genus Brama, within the pomfret family. The generic position of the species was revised twice, once being placed in the genus, Caranx. The genus Atropus had been created by Georges Cuvier in 1817 as Les Atropus. A. atropos is the species of the genus by monotypy. The type specimen was taken from the waters of Puducherry, in India, the fact that the generic and specific names differ by a single letter has also led to the misspelling of the species as Atropus atropus in some publications. The species is most commonly referred to in English as the trevally, with other names including cleftbelly kingfish, Kuweh trevally. It is also called the blackfin jack, but should not be confused with Hemicaranx zelotes. The cleftbelly trevally has a shape similar in many ways to a number of the larger jacks. The dorsal profile of the head is straight and steep from the tip of the jaw to above the eye where the profile becomes convex. The eye lacks an adipose eyelid, and the jaw has a narrow band of small teeth. The entire chest from underneath the pectoral fins to the base of the fins is scaleless. There are two dorsal fins, the first with eight spines and the second with a single spine followed by 19 to 22 soft rays. The anal fin has two detached spines before the part of the anal fin, which consists of one spine and 17 or 18 soft rays
11.
Yellowtail scad
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The yellowtail scad, is an abundant species of small inshore marine fish of the jack family, Carangidae. The species is widespread in the Indo-Pacific region from east Africa in the west to Hawaii in the east, extending north to Japan and it inhabits coastal areas such as bays and coral reefs, preying on small fishes and crustaceans. Spawning has been studied in Hawaii, where fish enter bays to spawn. The yellowtail scad is an important component of fisheries throughout its range, taken by a number of netting and it is a prized food fish in some regions and is cooked or preserved by a variety of methods. The yellowtail scad is the member of the monotypic genus Atule, one of 30 genera in the jack. The Carangidae are perciform fish in the suborder Percoidei, the yellowtail scad was first scientifically described by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1833 based on a specimen taken from the Seychelles, which was designated to be the holotype. He named the species Caranx mate, thereby placing the species in a genus with a number of larger, deeper bodied jacks, the species was subsequently redescribed and named many times, with most authors placing these species in other jack genera including Caranx, Decapterus and Selar. In 1906, Jordan and Seale produced one such name in the form of Decapterus lundini, Jordan later re-examined this taxon and decided it warranted its own, separate genus and thus created Atule, making Decapterus lundini the type species of the genus. The wide distribution of the species has led to common names being applied to the species. In English, the most common name is yellowtail scad or some variation of this, occasionally this combination will be proceeded by a variety of words including barred and northern. Other names applied include one-finlet scad, deep trevally, the name of horse mackerel, as well as the Hawaiian omaka. The yellowtail scad has a body profile similar to that of the other fish often called scad from the genera Decapterus and Trachurus. The dorsal and ventral profiles of the fish are nearly evenly convex, there are two separate dorsal fins, the first consisting of eight moderately high spines and the second of a single spine followed by 22 to 25 soft rays. The anal fin consists of two detached spines followed by a single spine attached to 18 to 21 soft rays. The lateral line is slightly arched anteriorally, with the intersection of the curved, the curved section contains between 39 and 57 scales, while the straight section has no to 10 scales and 36 to 49 scutes. Another of the distinguishing features of the species is an adipose eyelid which fully encloses the eye except for a small vertical slit over the pupil. This feature is only observable in individuals greater than 10 cm, both jaws have a single row of small teeth, although two or three rows of small canine teeth are present in older individuals. There are 37 to 44 gill rakers in total and 24 vertebrae, the yellowtail scad is a bright olive green above, transitioning to a more golden green ventrally, before becoming silvery white on the underside of the fish
12.
Vadigo
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The vadigo, Campogramma glaycos, is a species of medium sized coastal marine fish in the jack family, Carangidae. The species is distributed throughout the eastern Atlantic Ocean from the British Isles in the north to Senegal in the south, the vadigo is similar in form to both the leatherjacks and the queenfish, but can be distinguished by its scaleless chest and a broad, rounded upper jaw. It is a fish, preying mostly on smaller schooling fishes. The species was classified under the genus Centronotus before being transferred to its own monotypic genus of Campogramma. The vadigo is of commercial importance throughout its range, and is also considered to be a game fish. The vadigo is the species classified in the monotypic genus Campogramma, which itself is one of 31 genera in the family Carangidae. The Carangidae are Perciform fishes in the suborder Percoidei, the species was first scientifically described by Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1801 under the name of Centronotus glaycos. In 1903, Charles Tate Regan transferred the species to a new genus, Campogramma, the species has two junior synonyms, the first was described in 1941 as Oligoplites africana by Delsman and the second in 1955 by Dollfus, who named Campogramma lirio. Early phylogenetic treatments of the placed it in the subfamily Trachinotinae without substantiating evidence. A review of the genus by Smith-Vaniz and Staiger cited several anatomical characters which were incompatible with the Trachinotinae and they further suggested it was a close relative of Seriola, which was later reaffirmed by a comprehensive overview of the carangids by Gushiken. In this study, it was found to be most closely related to the runner, Elegatis bipinnulata. No recent genetic studies have investigated the species, the species is commonly known as the vadigo, which is the designated FishBase name, as well as the big-toothed pompano, zippered pompano, lexa and lexola. The vadigo is similar in form to other carangids, particularly the genera Oligoplites and Scomberoides, commonly known as queenfish and leatherjacks. It is a large fish growing to at least 60 cm. It has an elongate, moderately deep and slightly compressed body, the upper jaw is broad and rounded at its end with a single row of large, widely spaced canines in both the upper and lower jaw. The dorsal fin is in two parts, the first consisting of 6 or 7 short, often unconnected spines while the dorsal fin consists of a single spine followed by 26 to 28 sof rays. The anal fin is similar in appearance to the dorsal fin. Both the ventral and pectoral fins are short, with the ventral consisting of one spine followed by 5 soft rays, the caudal fin is large and highly forked having 30 rays in total
13.
Carangoides
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Carangoides is a genus of tropical to subtropical marine fishes in the jack family, Carangidae. They are small- to large-sized, deep-bodied fish characterised by a certain gill raker and jaw morphology, often appearing very similar to jacks in the genus Caranx. They inhabit the subtropical and tropical regions of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans, often occupying coastal areas, including reefs, bays and they are all predatory fishes, taking a variety of smaller fishes, crustaceans and cephalopods as prey. The genus was first erected in 1851 by Pieter Bleeker for an unknown taxon, many make up significant proportions of various fisheries, although a number of ciguatera cases have been attributed to them. The genus Carangoides is one of 31 genera in the jack and horse mackerel family, Carangidae, a number of recent phylogenetic studies on the family has placed Carangoides in the subfamily Caranginae, being most closely related to the genera Alectis, Atropus, Selene, and Uraspis. Carangoides was created by Pieter Bleeker in 1851 to accommodate a species of carangid fish, to rectify this, Caranx praeustus was selected to be the type species of the genus. Carangid classification was initially difficult, with many genera and species described. Later reviews of the family eventually placed 21 species into Carangoides, Carangoides takes priority over these other genera because its type species, Caranx praeustus, was described by an unknown author before the other species and genera were erected. The species of the genus are referred to as jacks or trevallies. The name Carangoides is derived from the French carangue, meaning fish of the Caribbean. They grow to a range of sizes, most attaining a length less than 50 cm and they have a relatively deep, compressed body, with the dorsal profile usually far more convex than the ventral, with a tapering posterior. The dorsal fin is in two parts, the first consisting of spines, and the second of one or two spines followed by a number of soft rays, the anal fin has detached spines preceding a long soft ray section headed by up to two spines. The caudal fin is large and forked and the fin is large. All species have scutes on the section of their lateral lines. The genus is defined as having gill rakers of normal length and shape, both upper and lower jaws have a band of teeth present and the breast is naked ventrally to completely scaled. The species are dull in coloration, mostly being silver, getting darker dorsally. Often, they have green or blue tinges to their bodies, a few, such as the orange-spotted trevally, have far more brilliant coloration, incorporating bright orange and yellow spotting. The fins are hyaline to grey, and occasionally blue or yellow
14.
Caranx
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Caranx is a genus of tropical to subtropical marine fishes in the jack family Carangidae, commonly known as jacks, trevallies and kingfishes. They are moderate- to large-sized, deep-bodied fishes which are distinguished from other genera by specific gill raker, fin ray. The genus is represented in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, all species are powerful predators, taking a variety of fish, crustaceans and cephalopods, while they in turn are prey to larger pelagic fishes and sharks. A number of fish in the genus have a reputation as powerful gamefish and are sought by anglers. They often make up high amounts of the catch in various fisheries, the genus Caranx is one of 30 currently recognised genera of fish in the jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae, which are perciform fishes in the suborder Percoidei. The species has long placed in the subfamily Caranginae, with modern molecular and genetic studies indicating this subdivision is acceptable. Phylogenetically, the genus of Gnathanodon is most closely related to Caranx. The early days of carangid taxonomy had over 100 species designated as members of the genus, most of which were synonyms, Caranx took authority over these other genera names due to its prior description, rendering the rest as invalid junior synonyms. The fish in the genus are referred to as jacks. Like the genus Carangoides, the word Caranx is derived from the French carangue, fossils mostly consist of otoliths, with the bony skeletal material rarely preserved. In their general body profile, they are similar to a number of other genera, having a deep. The dorsal fin is in two parts, the first consisting of 8 spines and the second of one spine and between 16 and 25 soft rays, the anal fin has one or two detached anterior spines, with 1 spine and between 14 and 19 soft rays. The caudal fin is strongly forked, all species have moderate to very strong scutes on the posterior section of their lateral lines. All members of Caranx are all generally silver to grey in colour, with shades of blue or green dorsally, fin colours range from hyaline to yellow, blue and black. Species from the genus Caranx are distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the world, inhabiting the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. They are known from the coasts of all continents and islands within this range, most species are coastal fish, and very few venture into waters further offshore than the continental shelf, and these species are generally moved by ocean currents. They inhabit a range of environments including sand flats, bays, lagoons, reefs, sea mounts, most species are demersal, or bottom dwelling, in nature, while others are pelagic, moving long distances in the upper water column. The level of information known about each species in Caranx is generally related to how important they are commercially
15.
Chloroscombrus
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Chloroscombrus is a genus containing two species of tropical to temperate water marine fish in the jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae. Both members are known as bumpers or bumperfish, with one species endemic to the Atlantic. They have a convex ventral profile compared to most other carangids, with small oblique mouths and they are predatory fish which live in both inshore and offshore environments ranging from estuaries to the edge of the continental shelf, and are of moderate importance to fisheries. Chloroscombrus is a genus containing two extant species and it is part of the jack family, Carangidae, a group of perciform fish in the suborder Percoidei. Recent phylogenetic studies using molecular information have placed Chloroscombrus in the subfamily Caranginae, the most recent phylogenetic study found the genus is very closely related to Hemicaranx, with the genera Selar, Selaroides and possibly Alepes also placed in a clade within the Carangini. However, both names were subsequently found to be junior synonyms of Linnaeus Scomber chrysurus, effectively making Chloroscombrus chrysurus the type species. The name is derived from the Greek words chloros, meaning green and skombros, meaning fish, no species pertaining to Chloroscombrus are known from the fossil record. There are currently two recognized species in this genus though they may be conspecific, although no detailed study has been undertaken to prove such a relationship. The genus is distinguished among most of the other carangid genera, although the bigeye scad, Selar crumenophthalmus. The anal fin is low, consisting of 2 detached spines anteriorly. The lateral line is moderately curved anteriorly, with six to 14 weak scutes on the straight section, the chests are completely scaled, and the jaws contain bands of fine villiform teeth. The species are silvery in colour, with the surface ranging from blue-green to dark metallic blue. C. orqueta has a black spot on the upper edge of the operculum. It is also known under common name plat plat. Both species are schooling species, found on the continental shelf leading pelagic lifestyles. They are commonly found in water environments including beaches, lagoons. They are also found in open ocean environments, commonly associated with floating objects. Both species of Chloroscombrus are predatory, taking a variety of prey, including fish, cephalopods and zooplankton
16.
Rainbow runner
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The rainbow runner, also known as the rainbow yellowtail, Spanish jack and Hawaiian salmon, is a common species of pelagic marine fish of the jack family, Carangidae. The species is widespread throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the world, the species is the only member of the genus Elagatis, which was created 15 years after its initial description, and is closely related to the amberjacks. The rainbow runner is distinguished by its body shape. It is a fast swimming predator, taking fish, cephalopods. The species reaches sexual maturity at around 60 cm, and spawning takes place at different times, with some populations spawning year round, the species is a well known game fish, taken by a variety of fishing methods and is a well rated table fish. Large amounts of the species are taken as bycatch in tuna and shark fishing operations, the rainbow runner is the only species in the monotypic genus Elagatis, which is one of thirty genera in the jack family, Carangidae. The Carangidae are Perciform fishes in the suborder Percoidei and they named the species Seriola bipinnulata, believing the species was related to the amberjacks. This was later revised to the genus Seriolichthys by Bleeker before it was concluded the species warranted a new genus, the genus Micropteryx was initially created, but was already in use in the Lepidoptera. Phylogenetically, the species is most closely related to the genus, Seriola. This has been determined by the sequencing of the cytochrome b genome. The species wide range has led to an array of local common names. Other names frequently applied include rainbow yellowtail, Hawaiian salmon, Salmon, Spanish Jack, Salmon del Alto, the rainbow runner has a body that is atypical of the jack family, which generally have deep, compressed bodies. The rainbow runner has a subcylindrical, elongated to almost fusiform body, with a pointed head and snout. The eye is small and the teeth are arranged on jaws in villiform bands, with minute teeth also present on the roof of the mouth. The fish has two fins, although the posterior rays of the long second fin have separated into a finlet. The first dorsal consists of 6 spines, the second of a spine and 25 to 30 soft rays. Approximately 4% of rainbow runner have only five spines in the first dorsal fin, and are apparently born without them. The anal fin consists of one spine detached from the fin anteriorally, while the fin has a single spine and 18 to 22 soft rays
17.
Golden trevally
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The golden trevally, Gnathanodon speciosus, is a species of large marine fish classified in the jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae, and the only member of the genus Gnathanodon. The species predominantly occupies inshore waters where it inhabits both reef and sandy substrates and it is known to grow to 120 cm in length and 15 kg in weight. The golden trevally schools as a juvenile, often closely following larger objects including sharks, the species uses its protractile jaws to suck out prey from the sand or reef, and consumes a variety of fish, crustaceans and molluscs. Spawning aggregations gather at night at different times of the year throughout its range, the golden trevally is a popular gamefish, taken by bait, lure, fly and also spear throughout its range. Several Asian countries currently farm the fish in caged aquaculture, due to their brilliant colouration, juveniles are popular in marine aquaria. The species was described for the first time by the Swedish naturalist Peter Forsskål in 1775. Forsskål referred the species to the genus Scomber, where many jacks were placed before the recognition of the family Carangidae, consequently, authorities regard Scomber rim as a junior synonym. Forsskåls description was based on an individual from the Red Sea off Jeddah, the holotype has since been lost and a neotype was invalidly designated by Ronald Fricke in 1999. The specific epithet speciosus is Latin for beautiful, the species was transferred to Caranx before the Dutch ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker placed it in its own genus Gnathanodon, with this name derived from the Latin for toothless jaws. In addition to Forsskåls naming, seven other names have been ascribed to the fish. The species common names refer to its appearance with golden trevally, banded trevally. In Hawaii the species is referred to as the yellow ulua or papio, a study on the phylogenetic relationships of the Carangidae-based primarily on osteology by Soko Gushiken found that Gnathanodon is closely related to and forms a monophyletic group with Caranx. The species has yet to be included in any molecular phylogeny study of the family, the golden trevally is widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In the Indian Ocean, the species is distributed from South Africa along the east African coastline, including the Red Sea and its distribution extends east along the Indian and South East Asian coastlines, and south through Indonesia and northern Australia. Golden trevally are recorded from many Indian Ocean islands including Madagascar, The Seychelles, in the Pacific, the species is spread throughout the South East Asian and Indonesian archipelago north mainland China and Japan and south to eastern Australia and New Zealand. Golden trevally have been recorded from many central Pacific Islands, including Hawaii, here its range extends from the Gulf of California in the north to Colombia in the south. The golden trevally predominantly occupies inshore waters of varying substrate, although is known to occur on continental shelf reefs in Australia. In coastal areas the species inhabits rocky and coral reefs as well as open sand flats where it forages for food, a systematic study in northern Australia indicated it to be one of the only species to be approximately equally distributed in both reef and soft-bottom habitats
18.
Torpedo scad
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The torpedo scad, Megalaspis cordyla, is a species of moderately large marine fish classified in the jack and horse mackerel family, Carangidae. The torpedo scad is distributed throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific region, ranging from South Africa in the west to Tonga in the east, extending to Japan in the north and it is a schooling pelagic fish which occupies the surface layers of both inshore and offshore oceanic waters. The torpedo scad is identified by both its torpedo shaped body and a series of detached finlets at the rear of both the dorsal and anal fins. The largest recorded individual was 80 cm long and weighed 4 kg and it is a predatory species, taking a variety of fish, cephalopods and crustaceans by both active and filter feeding. There is a shift in diet as the species grow, however fish is the dominant prey in all size classes, the torpedo scad is of major importance to fisheries throughout the Indo-Pacific, including India. Statistics show the annual catch of the species has risen from 70000 t in 1997 to 107000 t in 2007, the major users of the species from this data are Indonesia and Malaysia. The torpedo scad is often taken by anglers, however it is considered marginal table fare and is occasionally used as bait. The torpedo scad is the member of the monotypic genus Megalaspis, which is one of the thirty genera in the family Carangidae. The species was first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus, a famed Swedish naturalist who is considered the father of modern taxonomy. The specimen described by Linnaeus was erroneously described as being from America, ronald Frick designated a neotype for the species in 1999, however this was rejected as it failed to satisfy ICZN regulations. Linnaeus named the species Scomber cordyla, placing the fish in the mackerel genus. The specific epithet is Latin for mackerel or young tunny, a second independent renaming of the species occurred in 1793 by Marcus Elieser Bloch, who assigned the name Scomber rottleri, with several later redescriptions and namings occurring up until 1874. In 1851 Pieter Bleeker reassigned Scomber rottleri to its own genus Megalaspis, when S. rottleri was found to be a junior synonym of S. cordyla, the name of the species was finally transferred to Megalaspis cordyla where it has remained. M. cordyla has a variety of names, the most common of which is torpedo scad, with hardtail scad, finny scad, finletted mackerel scad. Because of the range of the species, it has a large collection of non-English common names also. The relationship of the species to other carangids was assessed in Soko Gushikens 1986 paper on the phylogeny of the Carangidae and it was the sole species in one of three distinct clades within the tribe Carangini. The torpedo scad has not been included in any later genetic studies of the Carangidae. The torpedo scad is a large fish, growing to a maximum recorded length of 80 cm
19.
Pilot fish
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The pilot fish is a carnivorous fish of the trevally, or jackfish family, Carangidae. It is widely distributed and lives in warm or tropical open seas and they are also known to follow ships, sometimes for long distances, one was found in County Cork, Ireland, and many pilot fish have been sighted on the shores of England. Their fondness for ships led the ancients to believe that they would navigate a ship to its desired course, the pilot fishs color is between dark blue and blackish-silver, with the belly being lighter in color. The pilot fish is known to have a temporary variation of color when excited, its dark-colored bars disappear. It can be recognized by its five to seven distinctive traverse bands, the pilot fish can grow up to 60–70 cm in length. The pilot fish is edible and is said to taste good, while pilot fish can be seen with all manner of sharks, they prefer accompanying the oceanic whitetip, Carcharhinus longimanus. The pilot fishs relationship with sharks is a mutualist one, the pilot fish gains protection from predators, as Herman Melville put it, These observations have led to the pilot fishs distinctive markings being copied for decals supplied as shark protection for surfboards. There are a few possible, conflicting etymologies for the pilot fish. One is that people believed that pilot fish, which would appear around the bow of their ships when they were close to land, were leading them back to port. An alternative etymology is that fish were once, erroneously, thought to be piloting sharks to food, or even piloting ships, whales. In Greek mythology a sailor called Pompilos helped the nymph Okyrhoe when she was fleeing away from the god Apollo, the sailor moved the nymph from Miletus to Samos and the god punished him by making him a pilot fish. The pilot fish is used as a metaphor or simile, they are like the pilot fish to the shark. Pilot fish are used as a metaphor or simile for scavengers or looters which accompany a greater threat. In the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, the fish were used in analogical terms for a robotic species who congregated around more dangerous life-forms, such as the Sycorax. They appeared three times in the series, twice with David Tennant in The Christmas Invasion and The Runaway Bride, what do they call those fishes that swim alongside sharks, making themselves useful so they dont get eaten. Thats me, thats what Im doing, just hanging on, ernest Hemingway bitterly immortalised John Dos Passos as a pilot fish for the wealthy in A Moveable Feast, after falling out with him over the Spanish Civil War
20.
Fringefin trevally
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A relatively small fish, the fringefin trevally is known to reach 40 cm, but is mostly encountered at lengths less than 25 cm. The fringefin trevally has a body, with distinctive orange-yellow fins. The dental patterns of the species distinguish it from the closely related scads of the genus Alepes, males have characteristic elongated dorsal and anal fins which produce a series of trailing filaments. The fringefin trevally is restricted to the waters of the Indo-Pacific, ranging from northern Australia to Papua New Guinea, an inshore species, it is found in coastal and estuarine environments and exhibits daily and seasonal movements. The fringefin trevally is predatory, taking crustaceans as prey, the species is often taken as bycatch in prawn trawls and occasionally taken by anglers. The fringefin trevally was scientifically described by the Australian naturalist William Macleay in 1881 based on the specimen taken in Rockingham Bay of Queensland. He named the species Caranx radiatus, with the specific epithet derived from the Latin word for radiating in reference to the elongated fin filaments, two years later in 1883, Macleay unknowingly redescribed the same species as Caranx compressus, again from a Queensland-caught specimen. The American ichthyologist Samuel Garman also redescribed the species as Caranx parasitus in 1903 and these later names are considered junior synonyms under ICZN rules and considered invalid. In 1937, Whitley also revised Caranx radiatus, placing it a new genus. Further revisions recognised the priority of Caranx radiatus as the first description, since Whitleys Pantolabus came first, it had priority, creating the currently accepted name of Pantolabus radiatus. The species is referred to as the fringefin or fringe-finned trevally in reference to the elongated dorsal and anal fin lobes. Other less commonly used names include round-finned trevally and reef herring, the fringefin trevally was included in a phylogenetic study based upon morphological characteristics by Soko Gushiken. This found the species to be most closely related to the scad genus Alepes, included in a monophyletic grouping of scads. The fringefin trevally is a small species of carangid, reaching a maximum recorded length of 40 cm. The species has a body with the dorsal and ventral profiles equally convex. A well developed adipose eyelid is present on the half of the eye. The dorsal fin is in two parts, the first having eight spines and the second one spine and 20 to 26 soft rays, the anal fin has two detached spines followed by 18 to 20 soft rays. The males of the species have all their soft dorsal and anal fins extended into distinctive filaments, the second dorsal and anal fins of both sexes have a scaly basal sheath
21.
Yellowstripe scad
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The yellowstripe scad, Selaroides leptolepis, is a species of small inshore fish in the jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae, and the only member of the genus Selaroides. The yellowstripe trevally is distributed throughout the waters of the Indo-West Pacific region, ranging from the Persian Gulf in the west to Vanuatu. The species is distinguished by its prominent lateral band, and differs from the scads of the genus Selar in having a smaller eye. The yellowstripe scad reaches a recorded length of 22 cm. Phylogenetic studies indicate the yellowstripe scad is closely related to the scads of the genus Selar, a schooling species that predominantly inhabits inshore waters, the yellowstripe scad is a predatory fish, taking crustaceans, small fish and a variety of other planktonic prey. Feeding occurs at different times of the day and night throughout its range, the species reaches sexual maturity at around 8–13 cm, with spawning in India shown to occur in two peak periods between January to April and July to October. The yellowstripe scad is an important commercial species, with between 113,000 t and 195,000 t reported worldwide between 1990 and 2010, the species is predominantly harvested with trawls, however is also taken with smaller traditional nets. The yellowstripe scad is marketed fresh, frozen, as a dried fish snack as well as several novel ways including fish powder, surimi and burgers. The yellowstripe scad is the member of the monotypic genus Selaroides, one of around thirty genera in the jack. The Carangidae are perciform fish within the subfamily Percoidei, the yellowstripe scad was first scientifically described by the famed French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1833 based on the holotype specimen taken from the waters of Java, Indonesia. He named the species Caranx leptolepis, with the specific epithet derived from Greek, for unknown reasons Bleeker later reassigned the species to another new genus, Leptaspis, without stating any reason for the change. As Selaroides was published first it has priority according to ICZN rules, in the same volume he described Caranx leptolepis, Cuvier also described Caranx mertensii based on a sketch alone. This name is now considered to be synonymous with S. leptolepis, between 1883 and 1877 the species was redescribed a further three times, with all these names also considered to be junior synonyms. The species is referred to as the yellowstripe, yellow-banded or gold-banded scad or trevally in reference to the distinctive yellow strip running along the side of the species. Other names applied to the species include smooth-tailed trevally, slender-scaled or thin scaled trevally or scad and slender trevally, the yellowstripe scad has been included in several phylogenetic analyses of the Carangidae, with each study suggesting slightly different relationships. All studies confirmed its placement in the subfamily Caranginae, a monophyletic grouping including the trevallies, jacks, scads, the yellowstripe scad is a small species, attaining a maximum length of 22 cm, but is more common at lengths less than 15 cm. The species has a shape typical of many scads, with a compressed elongate. There is a well developed adipose eyelid on the latter half of the eye
22.
Seriola
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Seriola is a genus of bony fish, commonly known as amberjacks. Nine extant species are recognized, although these were formerly split into many more. Also, several species are placed in several other genera of Carangidae that were originally described under Seriola. They are a large, carnivorous finfish popularly known for the texture and rich flavour of their flesh. Because specimens caught can weigh up to 41 kg, and are powerful swimmers and hunters, most Seriola species are either benthic, demersal or pelagic, and can be found down to 200 m in depth. All 9 species cover most of the globe in terms of distribution, most are shown to be pelagic spawners, releasing eggs into the open ocean habitat until hatching, and they do this through dioecious, external reproduction. Most Seriola species are found in schools, and have diets consisting of fish, squid, more than 150,000 tonnes of Seriola are produced through aquaculture per year. The majority is produced in Japan and Korea, with contributions from New Zealand/Australia. Japanese yellowtail accounts for more that 80% of global annual production and these cultured species are increasingly used in raw sushi, where they are known as hamachi, buri, kampachi and hiramasa. They are fed a range of diets, from fish to basic compound feeds to complex, formulated. As is the case with the majority of species, the farming of Seriola has associated environmental or other impacts. Capture of wild stocks for culture can have impacts on associated populations. There are environmental concerns over certain feeds used for cultured carnivorous or piscivorous species, disease is always of great concern within cultured species in terms of introduction and/or amplification of pathogens and parasites and subsequent infection of wild fish, as well as between farms. Escape of cultured fish is also a concern, which can have effects on wild stocks in terms of competition, predation and genetic alterations, depending on vulnerability, with effective management of regulations and good farming practices, these problems can be avoided. To address these impacts, the WWF is creating the Seriola, the purpose of the SCAD is to create standards that will minimize the key impacts of Seriola/Cobia aquaculture and move producers towards better performance. This will be done by identifying the key environmental and social impacts associated with the farming of three types of Seriola and cobia, and principles established for addressing each impact, then criteria will be developed to provide direction on how to reduce each impact. It is open to all stakeholders, including producers and other members of the chain, researchers, NGOs, government officials. The standards will be adopted by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, which will work with independent
23.
Trachinotus
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Pompanos /ˈpɑːmpənoʊ/ are marine fishes in the genus Trachinotus in the family Carangidae. Pompano may also refer to other, similarly shaped members of Carangidae. Their appearance is deep-bodied and mackerel-like, typically silver and toothless with a forked tail, of the 20 described species, most are valued as food. Some species are considered delicacies and game fish. A similar species is known as the permit, T. falcatus, the Florida pompano, T. carolinus, reaches about 45 cm and 1.5 kg, while the permit reaches about 90 cm and more than 14 kg. The 20 currently recognized species in this genus are, Trachinotus africanus J. L. B
24.
Trachurus
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Jack mackerels or saurels are marine fish in the Trachurus genus of the Carangidae family. The name of the genus derives from the Greek words trachys, some species, such as T. murphyi, are harvested in purse seine nets, and overfishing has sometimes occurred. It is often used in Japanese cuisine, where it is called aji, and in Turkish cuisine, the genus Trachurus was defined in 1810 by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, who called the type species Trachurus saurus. Taxonomists later determined that T. saurus was in fact the species as one described earlier as Scomber trachurus. Under the rules of nomenclature, that species is now known as Trachurus trachurus. Richardson,1843 Trachurus picturatus Trachurus symmetricus Trachurus trachurus Trachurus trecae Cadenat,1950 Fitch JE Jack mackerel CalCOFI Reports,5, 27–28
25.
Pompano
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Pompanos /ˈpɑːmpənoʊ/ are marine fishes in the genus Trachinotus in the family Carangidae. Pompano may also refer to other, similarly shaped members of Carangidae. Their appearance is deep-bodied and mackerel-like, typically silver and toothless with a forked tail, of the 20 described species, most are valued as food. Some species are considered delicacies and game fish. A similar species is known as the permit, T. falcatus, the Florida pompano, T. carolinus, reaches about 45 cm and 1.5 kg, while the permit reaches about 90 cm and more than 14 kg. The 20 currently recognized species in this genus are, Trachinotus africanus J. L. B
26.
Atlantic
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
27.
Indian Ocean
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The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the worlds oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2. It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, the Indian Ocean is known as Ratnākara, the mine of gems in ancient Sanskrit literature, and as Hind Mahāsāgar, in Hindi. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf, the oceans continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres in width. An exception is found off Australias western coast, where the width exceeds 1,000 kilometres. The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m and its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at 8,047 m deep, Sunda Trench has a depth of 7, 258–7,725 m. North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the basin is covered by pelagic sediments. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments, glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes. The major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean is artificially connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which is accessible via the Red Sea. All of the Indian Ocean is in the Eastern Hemisphere and the centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is in this ocean, marginal seas, gulfs, bays and straits of the Indian Ocean include, The climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon climate. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April, from May until October south, in the Arabian Sea the violent Monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere, the winds are milder. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world. Long-term ocean temperature records show a rapid, continuous warming in the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean warming is the largest among the tropical oceans, and about 3 times faster than the warming observed in the Pacific. Research indicates that human induced greenhouse warming, and changes in the frequency, among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Irrawaddy River. The oceans currents are controlled by the monsoon. Two large gyres, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving anticlockwise, during the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed. Deep water circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, north of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 °C, exceeding 28 °C to the east. Southward of 40° south latitude, temperatures drop quickly, surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and south-western Australia
28.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
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Reef
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A reef is a bar of rock, sand, coral or similar material, lying beneath the surface of water. Reefs may be up to 261 feet below the surface, artificial reefs such as shipwrecks are sometimes created to enhance physical complexity on generally featureless sand bottoms in order to attract a diverse assemblage of organisms, especially fish. There is a variety of reef types, including oyster reefs. These biotic reef types take on additional names depending upon how the reef lies in relation to the land, Reef types include fringing reef, barrier reefs, as well as atolls. A fringing reef is a reef that is attached to an island, a barrier reef forms a calcareous barrier around an island resulting in a lagoon between the shore and the reef. An atoll is a reef with no land present. The reef front is a high energy locale whereas the internal lagoon will be at an energy with fine grained sediments. One useful definition distinguishes reefs from mounds as follows, reefs are held up by a macroscopic skeletal framework. Coral reefs are an excellent example of this kind, corals and calcareous algae grow on top of one another and form a three-dimensional framework that is modified in various ways by other organisms and inorganic processes. By contrast, mounds lack a macroscopic skeletal framework, mounds are built by microorganisms or by organisms that dont grow a skeletal framework. A microbial mound might be built exclusively or primarily by cyanobacteria, excellent examples of biostromes formed by cyanobacteria occur in the Great Salt Lake of Utah, and in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Cyanobacteria do not have skeletons and individuals are microscopic, cyanobacteria encourage the precipitation or accumulation of calcium carbonate and can produce distinct sediment bodies in composition that have relief on the seafloor. Cyanobacterial mounds were most abundant before the evolution of shelly macroscopic organisms, bryozoans and crinoids, common contributors to marine sediments during the Mississippian, produced a very different kind of mound. Bryozoans are small and the skeletons of crinoids disintegrate, however, bryozoan and crinoid meadows can persist over time and produce compositionally distinct bodies of sediment with depositional relief. The Proterozoic Belt Supergroup contains evidence of microbial mat and dome structures similar to stromatolite reef complexes. Ancient reefs buried within stratigraphic sections are of considerable interest to geologists because they provide information about the location in Earths history. Corals, including some major extinct groups Rugosa and Tabulata, have been important reef builders through much of the Phanerozoic since the Ordovician Period. However, other groups, such as calcifying algae, especially members of the red algae Rhodophyta
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Greater amberjack
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The greater amberjack is a jack of the genus Seriola. It is found in the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and it is the largest genus in the Carangidae family, with a maximum length of 200 cm. It is a pelagic fish with similar habits to the kingfish. They are silver-blue with a side line, with a brown band crossing over the eye area. The greater amberjack is a hunter which feeds on other fish. The greater amberjack is prized by sports fisherman because it is a powerful fish and can be quite large. It is an excellent eating fish and it is also a big-game fish and are one of the greatest fighting fish pound for pound. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds, guida allidentificazione dei pesci marini dEuropa e del Mediterraneo
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Pacific jack mackerel
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The Pacific jack mackerel, is an abundant species of pelagic marine fish in the jack family, Carangidae. The species is distributed along the western coast of North America, ranging from Alaska in the north to the Gulf of California in the south, inhabiting both offshore and inshore environments. The Pacific jack mackerel is a large fish, growing to a maximum recorded length of 81 cm. It is very similar in appearance to other members of its genus, Trachurus, especially Trachurus murphyi, which was thought to be a subspecies of T. symmetricus. Pacific jack mackerel travel in schools, ranging up to 600 miles offshore and to depths of 400 m. It has been reported as far south as the Galápagos Islands, Pacific jack mackerel occur in both pelagic and inshore environments, often venturing up to 600 miles offshore and to known depths of 400 m. In more coastal environments, they are known to inhabit bays and it is a medium- to large-sized fish, growing to a maximum known length of 81 cm, although more common at below 55 cm. The two separate dorsal fins are composed of eight spines and one spine followed by 31 to 35 soft rays, the anal fin is composed of two spines anteriorly detached followed by one spine connected to 26 to 30 soft rays. In some larger individuals, the last few rays at the posterior of the dorsal and anal fins are almost entirely separate from the rest of the fin. The caudal fin is forked, typical amongst the Carangidae, while the ventral fin consists of one spine. The pectoral fin terminates before the front of the anal fin, the lateral line dips strongly after the pectoral fin, having 50 to 53 scales on the upper section and 43 to 52 keeled scutes posteriorly. The species teeth are minute, with a patch of teeth on the tongue in a narrow club-shaped strip, there are 24 vertebrae in total. Pacific jack mackerel are metallic blue to olive-green dorsally, becoming silvery ventrally. The top of the head and area near eye is dark with a dark spot on the upper rear of the gill cover. The fins are hyaline to dusky, although caudal fin may be yellow to reddish. Pacific jack mackerel are fished commercially as well as for sport and they are often caught on baited hook from piers and boats, and also while salmon trolling. Commercial fishing occurs along the coast, large individuals often move inshore and north in the summer. Pacific jack mackerel is canned in the manner as salmon
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Paleogene
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The Paleogene is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 million years ago to the beginning of the Neogene Period 23.03 Mya. It is the beginning of the Cenozoic Era of the present Phanerozoic Eon and this period consists of the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene epochs. The terms Paleogene System and lower Tertiary System are applied to the rocks deposited during the Paleogene Period. By dividing the Tertiary Period into two periods instead of directly into five epochs, the periods are more comparable to the duration of periods of the preceding Mesozoic and Paleozoic Eras. The trend was caused by the formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. During the Paleogene, the continued to drift closer to their current positions. India was in the process of colliding with Asia, subsequently forming the Himalayas, the Atlantic Ocean continued to widen by a few centimeters each year. Africa was moving north to meet with Europe and form the Mediterranean, inland seas retreated from North America early in the period. Australia had also separated from Antarctica and was drifting towards Southeast Asia, mammals began a rapid diversification during this period. Some of these mammals would evolve into forms that would dominate the land, while others would become capable of living in marine, specialized terrestrial. Those that took to the oceans became modern cetaceans, while those that took to the trees became primates, the group to which humans belong. Birds, which were well established by the end of the Cretaceous. In comparison to birds and mammals, most other branches of life remained unchanged during this period. As the Earth cooled, tropical plants became less numerous and were now restricted to equatorial regions, deciduous plants, which could survive through the seasonal climates the world was now experiencing, became more common. The Paleogene is notable in the context of offshore oil drilling, and especially in Gulf of Mexico oil exploration and these rock formations represent the current cutting edge of deep-water oil discovery. Lower Tertiary explorations to date include, Kaskida Oil Field Tiber Oil Field Jack 2 Paleogene Microfossils, 180+ images of Foraminifera
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Extinction
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In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms, normally a species. The moment of extinction is considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed. Because a species range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult. This difficulty leads to such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly reappears after a period of apparent absence. More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to five billion species. Estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described, the relationship between animals and their ecological niches has been firmly established. Mass extinctions are relatively rare events, however, isolated extinctions are quite common, only recently have extinctions been recorded and scientists have become alarmed at the current high rate of extinctions. Most species that become extinct are never scientifically documented, some scientists estimate that up to half of presently existing plant and animal species may become extinct by 2100. A dagger symbol next to a name is often used to indicate its extinction. A species is extinct when the last existing member dies, Extinction therefore becomes a certainty when there are no surviving individuals that can reproduce and create a new generation. Pinpointing the extinction of a species requires a definition of that species. If it is to be declared extinct, the species in question must be distinguishable from any ancestor or daughter species. Extinction of a plays a key role in the punctuated equilibrium hypothesis of Stephen Jay Gould. In ecology, extinction is often used informally to refer to local extinction, in which a species ceases to exist in the area of study. This phenomenon is known as extirpation. Local extinctions may be followed by a replacement of the species taken from other locations, species which are not extinct are termed extant. Those that are extant but threatened by extinction are referred to as threatened or endangered species, currently an important aspect of extinction is human attempts to preserve critically endangered species
