White croaker (''Genyonemus lineatus'') is a species of croaker occurring in the Eastern Pacific. White croakers have been taken from

Magdalena Bay Magdalena Bay () is a long bay in Comondú Municipality along the western coast of the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, state of Baja California Sur. It is protected from the Pacific Ocean by the unpopulated sandy barrier islands of Isla Magda ...

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur, is a state in Mexico. It is the 31st and last state to be admitted, in 1974. It is also the second least populated Mexican state and the ninth-largest state by ...

, to

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, but are not abundant north of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. White croakers swim in loose schools at or near the bottom of sandy areas. Sometimes they aggregate in the surf zone or in shallow

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

s and

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

s. Most of the time they are found in offshore areas at depths of . On rare occasions they are fairly abundant at depths as great as . The white croaker is the only species of in the genus ''Genyonemus''. A fossil relative, '' G. whistleri'', is known from the Late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

-aged

Puente Formation The Puente Formation is a Formation (geology), geologic formation in California. It preserves fossils dating back to the middle to upper Miocene epoch of the Neogene Period (geology), period, most of which were deposited in a deepwater environment ...

of the

Los Angeles Basin The Los Angeles Basin is a sedimentary Structural basin, basin located in Southern California, in a region known as the Peninsular Ranges. The basin is also connected to an wikt:anomalous, anomalous group of east–west trending chains of mountai ...

. Other common names for the fish include Pasadena trout, tommy croaker, and little bass.

Description

The body of the white croaker is elongate and somewhat compressed. The head is oblong and bluntly rounded, with a mouth that is somewhat underneath the head. The color is incandescent brownish to yellowish on the back becoming silvery below. The fins are yellow to white. The white croaker is one of five California croakers that have mouths located under their heads ( subterminal). They can be distinguished from the

California corbina The California corbina (''Menticirrhus undulatus''), or California kingcroaker, is marine demersal fish in the Sciaenidae, croaker family. It can often be found along sandy beaches and in shallow bays. This species travels in small groups alon ...

and

yellowfin croaker The yellowfin croaker (''Umbrina roncador'') is a species of croaker occurring from the Gulf of California, Mexico, to Point Conception, California. They frequent bays, channels, harbors and other nearshore waters over sandy bottoms. These croak ...

by the absence of a single fleshy projection, or

barbel Barbel may refer to: *Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles *Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish **''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprini ...

, at the tip of the lower jaw. The 12 to 15 spines in the first

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 ...

serve to distinguish white croakers from all the other croakers with sub-terminal mouths, since none of these has more than 11 spines in this fin. White croakers eat a variety of fishes,

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateria, bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limb (anatomy), limbs, and usually no eyes. Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine ...

s, small

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 ...

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...

s and other items, either living or dead. While the ages of white croakers have not been determined conclusively, it is thought that some live as long as 15 or more years. Some

spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawning, the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** ''Spawn: Armageddon' ...

for the first time when they are between 2 and 3 years old. At this age they are only long and weigh less than . Also have barbels on the lower lip. The largest recorded specimen was , no weight recorded; however, a white croaker weighed 640 grams (1 lb 6½ oz).

Fishing information

These fish can be caught on almost any kind of animal

bait Bait may refer to: General * Bait (luring substance), bait as a luring substance ** Fishing bait, bait used for fishing Film * ''Bait'' (1950 film), a British crime film by Frank Richardson * ''Bait'' (1954 film), an American noir film by Hugo ...

that is fished from

pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...

s or jetties in sandy or sandy mud areas. In fact, they are so easily hooked that most anglers consider them a nuisance of the worst sort. If a person desires to fish specifically for white croakers a tough, difficult-to-steal bait, such as

, is recommended. When hooked, they put up little or no fight. Fishing and catching is good throughout the year.

Cuisine

White croaker meat has been used as a co-ingredient in creating

Crab stick Crab sticks, krab sticks, snow legs, imitation crab meat, or seafood sticks are a Japanese seafood product made of ''surimi'' (pulverized white fish) and starch, then shaped and cured to resemble the leg meat of snow crab or Japanese spider c ...

References

*Much of this article is copied fro
California Marine Sportfish
by the California Department of Fish and Game, Marine Region; a public domain resource

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q692905 Sciaenidae Western North American coastal fauna Fish described in 1855 Taxa named by William Orville Ayres