Atlantic tripletail
Encyclopedia
The Atlantic tripletail or Tripletail (Lobotes surinamensis) is a warm-water marine fish
found across the tropics and can grow to 90 cm long and weigh 18 kg. It is also known by fishermen by names like flasher or steamboat. Young fishes float on their sides, often beside flotsam, and appear like a dry leaf.
In US waters, Atlantic tripletails are found from Massachusetts
and Bermuda
to Argentina
, the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea
, from Madeira Island to the Gulf of Guinea
, the eastern Pacific from Costa Rica
to Peru
, and the western Pacific from Japan
to Fiji
and Tuvalu
. They are rarely found north of Chesapeake Bay
. They are found on the Gulf Coast from April to October and then migrate to warmer waters during winter. In the spring, tripletail concentrate just offshore of two particular spots: Port Canaveral, Florida (March-June) and Jekyll Island, Georgia (April-July).
algae. In the Gulf of Mexico
, adults are usually found in open water, but can also be found in passes, inlets, and bays near river mouths. Young fishes are also often found in or near shipwrecks, beams or supports, jetties, flotsam and sea buoys. Fry are usually found in waters that exceed temperatures of 84 °F (29 °C), greater than 3.3‰ salinity, and more than 230 feet (70 m) deep.
Tripletail are well known for their unusual behavior of floating just beneath the surface with one side exposed, mimicking a leaf or floating debris. This is thought to be a feeding strategy because of the locality of their prey items and the floating structures associated with this behavior. The behavior has resulted in a rapidly increasing incidence of recreational fishermen sight-fishing for the floating tripletail, resulting in severe bag and length restrictions in Florida and Georgia to ensure future populations.
, anal, and caudal fins and a head profile that concaves as the fish ages. It has a compressed but deep body with a triangle-shaped head. The eyes are small but the mouth is large. The bases of the dorsal and anal fins are scaled and the pectoral fins are shorter than the pelvic fins. The name "tripletail" is given because of the fish's three rounded fins: dorsal, caudal, and anal.
, Atlantic bumper
s, and anchovies
. They also feed on invertebrate
s like blue crabs and brown shrimp, as well as other benthic crustacean
s.
es, some jacks, spadefishes and bass.
s and larger teleosts.
s Anuretes heckelii which affect the branchial cavities, Lernanthropus pupa which affect the gill filaments, and Scianophilus tenius.
, and marketed fresh, frozen, or salted. They are mainly caught using haul seines, gill nets and line gear. They are common in driftnet catches of tuna
along the edge of the continental shelf. This fish is infrequently targeted by recreational fishers.
Both Florida and Georgia have a bag limit of two fish per day for recreational fishing. In Florida, the minimum length is 15 inches; in Georgia, 18 inches.
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
found across the tropics and can grow to 90 cm long and weigh 18 kg. It is also known by fishermen by names like flasher or steamboat. Young fishes float on their sides, often beside flotsam, and appear like a dry leaf.
Geographical distribution
The Atlantic tripletail is the only fish in the Lobotidae family that can be found in the Atlantic Ocean. It is however distributed across tropical seas.In US waters, Atlantic tripletails are found from Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
and Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
, from Madeira Island to the Gulf of Guinea
Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf....
, the eastern Pacific from Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
to Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, and the western Pacific from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
to Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
and Tuvalu
Tuvalu
Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls...
. They are rarely found north of Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
. They are found on the Gulf Coast from April to October and then migrate to warmer waters during winter. In the spring, tripletail concentrate just offshore of two particular spots: Port Canaveral, Florida (March-June) and Jekyll Island, Georgia (April-July).
Habitat
Atlantic tripletails are found coastally in most, but not all, tropical and subtropical seas. They are semi-migratorial and pelagic. Normally solitary, they have been known to form schools. They can be found in bays, sounds, and estuaries during the summer. Juveniles are usually found swimming under patches of SargassumSargassum
Sargassum is a genus of brown macroalga in the order Fucales. Numerous species are distributed throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world, where they generally inhabit shallow water and coral reefs. However, the genus may be best known for its planktonic species...
algae. In the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
, adults are usually found in open water, but can also be found in passes, inlets, and bays near river mouths. Young fishes are also often found in or near shipwrecks, beams or supports, jetties, flotsam and sea buoys. Fry are usually found in waters that exceed temperatures of 84 °F (29 °C), greater than 3.3‰ salinity, and more than 230 feet (70 m) deep.
Tripletail are well known for their unusual behavior of floating just beneath the surface with one side exposed, mimicking a leaf or floating debris. This is thought to be a feeding strategy because of the locality of their prey items and the floating structures associated with this behavior. The behavior has resulted in a rapidly increasing incidence of recreational fishermen sight-fishing for the floating tripletail, resulting in severe bag and length restrictions in Florida and Georgia to ensure future populations.
Distinctive features
Atlantic tripletails have scales that extend onto the dorsalDorsal fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...
, anal, and caudal fins and a head profile that concaves as the fish ages. It has a compressed but deep body with a triangle-shaped head. The eyes are small but the mouth is large. The bases of the dorsal and anal fins are scaled and the pectoral fins are shorter than the pelvic fins. The name "tripletail" is given because of the fish's three rounded fins: dorsal, caudal, and anal.
Coloration
Juvenile Atlantic tripletails are colored a mottled yellow, brown, and black. Adults are jet black. When it lies on its side at the surface, the tripletail is sometimes confused for a floating mangrove leaf. The juveniles have white pectoral fins and a white margin on the caudal fin. Adult tripletails have varied mottled color patterns which range from dark brown to reddish brown, often with a tint of gray.Size, age, and growth
The Atlantic tripletail grows to 35 inches (89 cm) in length and weighs up to 41 poundsDiet
Atlantic tripletails are opportunistic eaters. This means that they feed on a variety of things, mostly small finfish like gulf menhadenGulf menhaden
The Gulf menhaden is a small marine filter feeding fish belonging to the family Clupeidae. The range of Gulf menhaden encompasses the entirety of the Gulf of Mexico nearshore waters, with the exception of the extreme eastern Yucatan and western Cuba...
, Atlantic bumper
Atlantic bumper
The Atlantic bumper, Chloroscombrus chrysurus, is a game fish in the family, Carangidae. It was first described by the "father of modern taxonomy", Carl Linnaeus in the book, Systema Naturae...
s, and anchovies
Anchovy
Anchovies are a family of small, common salt-water forage fish. There are 144 species in 17 genera, found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Anchovies are usually classified as an oily fish.-Description:...
. They also feed on invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s like blue crabs and brown shrimp, as well as other benthic crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s.
Reproduction
Spawning primarily occurs in the summer along both the Atlantic and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coasts, with peaks during the months of July and August. Large congregations of tripletail during the summer months in the inshore and nearshore waters of coastal Georgia suggest that this area is a critical estuarian spawning habitat for the species. Larval Atlantic tripletails go though four levels of development; preflexion, flexion, postflexion, and transformation. By the time the larvae reach 0.16 inches (4 mm), they have large eyes and a concave head. The larval forms of Atlantic tripletails resemble those of boarfishBoarfish
Boarfish is the common name of two unrelated groups of fishes:*All fish of the family Caproidae are called boarfish.*Some fish of the family Pentacerotidae are called boarfish....
es, some jacks, spadefishes and bass.
Predators
Atlantic tripletails do not have many predators, but the main ones are sharkShark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
s and larger teleosts.
Parasites
Parasites that affect the tripletail include the copepodCopepod
Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Some species are planktonic , some are benthic , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,...
s Anuretes heckelii which affect the branchial cavities, Lernanthropus pupa which affect the gill filaments, and Scianophilus tenius.
Importance to humans
A few tons of Atlantic tripletails are fished commercially on the east and west coasts of FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and marketed fresh, frozen, or salted. They are mainly caught using haul seines, gill nets and line gear. They are common in driftnet catches of tuna
Tuna
Tuna is a salt water fish from the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tuna are fast swimmers, and some species are capable of speeds of . Unlike most fish, which have white flesh, the muscle tissue of tuna ranges from pink to dark red. The red coloration derives from myoglobin, an...
along the edge of the continental shelf. This fish is infrequently targeted by recreational fishers.
Conservation
The Atlantic tripletail is not listed as endangered or vulnerable with the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The IUCN is a global union of states, governmental agencies, and non-governmental organizations in a partnership that assesses the conservation status of species.Both Florida and Georgia have a bag limit of two fish per day for recreational fishing. In Florida, the minimum length is 15 inches; in Georgia, 18 inches.