Sand Drum, Umbrina coroides
Sand Drum, Umbrina coroides. Fish caught from within the intercoastal waterway of Sebastian, Florida, November 2021. Length: 12 cm (4.7 inches). Catch, photograph, and identification courtesy of Ben Cantrell, Sebastian, Florida.
Sand Drum, Umbrina coroides. Fish caught off the Anglin’s Fishing Pier, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida, July 2020. Length: 18 cm (7.1 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Luke Ovgard, Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Sand Drum, Umbrina coroides. Fish caught off the Juno Beach Pier, Juno Beach, Florida, February 2017. Length: 28 cm (11 inches). Catch, photograph, and identification courtesy of George Brinkman, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Sand Drum, Umbrina coroides. Fish caught from coastal waters off Fort Lauderdale, Florida, December 2013. Length: 20 cm (7.9 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Eli (obsessiveangling.wordpress.com).
The Sand Drum, Umbrina coroides, is a member of the Croaker or Sciaenidae Family, and is known in Mexico as berrugata arenera. Globally, there are eighteen species in the genus Umbrina, of which seven are found in Mexican waters, one in the Atlantic, this species, and six in the Pacific Ocean.
The Sand Drum has a moderately compressed, moderately elongated oblong body. They are silvery gray dorsally and lighter ventrally. They have a series of 9 or 10 dark bars on their sides with dotted wavy lines along their scale rows; the line under their dorsal fin is oblique. They have yellow fins and the upper half of their caudal and dorsal fins is dusky. The inside of their gill chamber is dark. They have a high back that is arched at the nape. Their head is low and broad with a conical projecting snout, a small horizontal mouth, 1 thick barbel at the tip of the chin, and 2 pairs of pores. Their gill covers are finely serrated. Their anal fin has a short base with 2 spines and 6 rays with the second spine being greater than two-thirds the length of the first ray; their caudal fin has a straight margin; their first dorsal fin has 10 slender spines, a notch, and the second dorsal fin has a long base with 1 spine and 26 to 31 rays. They have 13 to 15 gill rakers. They are covered with rough scales.
The Sand Drum is a demersal species that is found over sandy bottoms in shallow coastal areas at depths up to 24 m (80 feet) primarily in the surf zone along sandy beaches with clear water. They reach a maximum of 35 cm (14 inches) in length. They can occasionally be found in estuaries over muddy bottoms and within coral reefs. They consume small bottom-dwelling crustaceans exposed by wave action. The Sand Drum is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Sand Drums is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Atlantic Ocean including the Gulf of Mexico and the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Caribbean.
The Sand Drum can be confused with the Black Drum, Pogonias cromis (dark fins), the Red Drum, Sciaenops ocellatus (copper color; one large tail spot), and the Spot, Leiostomus xanthurus (numerous small stripes; prominent dark spot just behind gill covers).
From a conservation perspective the Sand Drum is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are caught at a limited level as a by-catch by commercial fishermen with cast nets, seines and traps with larger ones retained for food and the smaller ones sold for use as a live bait.