Almaco Jack
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The longfin yellowtail (''Seriola rivoliana''), also known as the almaco or silvercoat jack, deep-water, falcate, European or highfin amberjack, rock salmon, longfin or yellow kingfish, is a
game fish Game fish, sport fish or quarry refer to popular fish species pursued by recreational fishing, recreational fishers (typically angling, anglers), and can be freshwater fish, freshwater or saltwater fish. Game fish can be fish as food, eaten aft ...
of the
family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Carangidae; they are in the same family as yellowtail and amberjack. They are
carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...
and feed, both day and night, on other, smaller fish, such as baitfish, small
squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...
,
octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...
,
crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...
and
shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...
. The flesh is thick and dense, like
tuna A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bul ...
, and easily may be passed off for white albacore if prepared as
sushi is a traditional Japanese dish made with , typically seasoned with sugar and salt, and combined with a variety of , such as seafood, vegetables, or meat: raw seafood is the most common, although some may be cooked. While sushi comes in n ...
.


Taxonomy

Achille Valenciennes Achille Valenciennes (9 August 1794 – 13 April 1865) was a French zoology, zoologist. Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. His study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of parasi ...
, and
Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...
published the first
description Description is any type of communication that aims to make vivid a place, object, person, group, or other physical entity. It is one of four rhetorical modes (also known as ''modes of discourse''), along with exposition, argumentation, and narr ...
of this species in 1833, although Cuvier died in 1832. Valenciennes and Cuvier together described many fish
species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
, most notably in the 22-volume, ''Histoire naturelle des poissons'', (Natural History of Fish).


Description

The longfin yellowtail has a less elongated, more flattened body than most jack species. Their
dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...
and
anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...
s are elongated, and their outer edges have a definite
sickle A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting or reaping grain crops, or cutting Succulent plant, succulent forage chiefly for feedi ...
shape. The first rays of the almaco dorsal fin's longest parts are nearly twice as long as the dorsal spines, also different from other jacks. They reach a typical length of , sometimes reaching and . Typical catch is approximately ten pounds, however, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which describes it as wide-ranging in small groups and not a common catch. Generally, longfin yellowtails are dusky-colored with faint
amber Amber is fossilized tree resin. Examples of it have been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since the Neolithic times, and worked as a gemstone since antiquity."Amber" (2004). In Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen (eds.) ''Encyclopedia ...
or
olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...
stripes down their sides. Their upper bodies and lower fins usually are dark brown or dark blue-green. The belly is much lighter and appears brassy or lavender. The nuchal bar and most of the fins are dark on adults. Exceptions are the
pelvic fins Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral (belly) surface of fish, and are the lower of the only two sets of paired fins (the other being the laterally positioned pectoral fins). The pelvic fins are homologous to the hi ...
which are white on the
ventral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...
sides.


Distribution and habitat

The longfin yellowtail is a
pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...
species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
, which are found in open-ocean zones in the vast deep waters beyond the continental shelf. This species may be found in small groups on slopes and off
reefs A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition of sand or wave eros ...
at depths from 5 to 160 m. They visit wrecks more often than most other jacks do. In the Indian to the west Pacific oceans, almaco jack live from Kenya to South Africa and have been spotted off
Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st pa ...
,
Wake Island Wake Island (), also known as Wake Atoll, is a coral atoll in the Micronesia subregion of the Pacific Ocean. The atoll is composed of three islets – Wake, Wilkes, and Peale Islands – surrounding a lagoon encircled by a coral reef. The neare ...
,
Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands (Ōsumi Islands, Ōsumi, Tokara Islands, Tokara and A ...
, Kermadec Islands, and
New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...
. In the eastern Pacific, almaco jack live from California to Peru and the
Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...
. In the western Atlantic, they live mostly from
Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...
to northern Argentina, although they are rare off
North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...
and
South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
. In the Northeast Atlantic it is known from the
Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...
,
Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...
, and mainland Portugal, though it has also been reported in southern England and in the Gulf of Biscay. Recorded first in 2000 in the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
, near Lampedusa islands (Italy), more recent but sparse records are reported from the Balearic Islands to the Gulf of Gabès.- They typically swim at depths ranging from .


Behavior

The unusual stamina of the longfin yellowtail makes them a prime target for sport fishing in deep waters. Almaco jack are subject to skin-based
parasites Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The en ...
. They remove them by rubbing against the rough skin of passing
shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...
s. They are known to rub against passing scuba divers also, because they mistake them for sharks. These fish spawn as often as weekly throughout the year.


Aquaculture

Longfin yellowtails are farmed/ranched in deep water near the Island of Hawaii under the brand name Hawaiian Kampachi; and in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico under the brand name: Baja Kampachi, as a domesticated alternative to wild tuna. Global production reached in 2008. Almaco jack are abundant in the wild and never have been harvested commercially on large scale. In 2019, federal permit applications were filed to the
United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...
and US Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a pilot study funded by Florida Sea Grant (using this species) 45 miles into the Gulf of Mexico southwest of Sarasota Florida. Florida Sea Grant hosted a public workshop in June 2019 to introduce the project to the public. The draft National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit application was posted for public comment by the EPA. The number of public comments received triggered a public hearing on January 28, 2020 at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, and ultimately generated 43,000 public comments. The agencies were expected to post final permits in late summer 2020. Eating almaco jack may cause a disease in humans called
ciguatera Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP), also known as ciguatera, is a foodborne illness caused by eating tropical reef fish contaminated with ciguatoxins. Such individual fish are said to be ciguatoxic. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, numbness ...
, through
bioaccumulation Bioaccumulation is the gradual accumulation of substances, such as pesticides or other chemicals, in an organism. Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a substance faster than it can be lost or eliminated by catabolism and excretion. T ...
of ciguatoxin produced by a microscopic organism called
dinoflagellate The Dinoflagellates (), also called Dinophytes, are a monophyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes constituting the phylum Dinoflagellata and are usually considered protists. Dinoflagellates are mostly marine plankton, but they are also commo ...
. However, farmed almaco jack on a controlled diet are free of these dinoflagellates and therefore, do not transmit ciguatera when eaten. These fish have among the best reported feed-conversion ratios ever achieved. With no selective breeding at all, the amount of consumed pelleted feed required to produce one pound of almaco jack ranges from 1.6:1–2:1 pounds of feed to final live weight pound of fish. The resulting meat has a fat content of around 30%. A Hawaiian fish farm grows longfin yellowtail, branded Kona Kampachi, in ring- or diamond-shaped net pens moored to the sea bottom below.


As food

The flesh of the longfin yellowtail is quite delicious and may be prepared in a myriad of dishes, from completely raw (e.g. sushi, sashimi, crudo, etc.) to fully cooked (e.g. grilled, steamed, baked, etc.).


References

*


External links


SERIOLA RIVOLIANA from New Caledonia (En/Fr)
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q533533 longfin yellowtail Fish of the Indian Ocean Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish of the Eastern United States Fish of the Mediterranean Sea longfin yellowtail