Longfin Croaker, Umbrina dorsalis
Longfin Croaker, Umbrina dorsalis, Juvenile. Fish caught from the beach at Km 21, Cabo Real, Baja California Sur, July 2008. Length: 8.0 cm (3.1 inches).
Longfin Croaker, Umbrina dorsalis. Fish caught from the beach at Km 21, Cabo Real, Baja California Sur, November 2017. Length: 21 cm (8.3 inches).
Longfin Croaker, Umbrina dorsalis. Fish caught from shore at El Cardonal, Baja California Sur, August 2020. Length: 29 cm (11.4 inches). Catch and photograph courtesy of Doug Bomeisler, Fort Pierce, Florida.
The Longfin Croaker, Umbrina dorsalis, is a member of the Croaker or Sciaenidae Family, that is also known as the Longfin Drum and in Mexico as berrugata aleta. Globally, there are eighteen species in the genus Umbrina, of which seven are found in Mexican waters, one in the Atlantic and six in the Pacific Ocean.
The Longfin Croaker has a moderately oblong slightly compressed body with a horizontal lower body profile. They have a uniform silvery coloration with a series of indistinct oblique lines along the scale rows that become darker as the fish matures. The inside of their gill chamber is very dark and visible through the gill cover. Their fins are generally transparent with black tinges. They have high arched backs. Their head is broad, conical, and low with a very short projecting snout that opens in the front. Their gill covers are finely serrated. Their chin has 1 short barbel with a pore at its tip and 2 pairs of pores at its base. Their anal fin has a short base with 2 spines and 7 or 8 rays with the second spine being stout and three-fourths the length of the first ray; their caudal fin has a slightly concave margin; their first dorsal fin has 10 spines, a deep notch, and their second dorsal fin has a very long base with 1 spine and 29 to 33 rays; and, their pectoral fins are short. They have 18 to 25 gill rakers and are covered with rough scales.
The Longfin Croaker is a demersal species that is found over sandy bottoms in the surf zone, and in inshore bays at depths up to 24 m (80 feet). They reach a maximum of 40 cm (16 inches) in length. The Longfin Croaker 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 Longfin Croaker is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific but has a limited range being found around the extreme southern portion of Baja California Sur and along the coast from Mazatlán, Sinaloa south to Guatemala.
The Longfin Croaker can be easily confused with several other surf croakers, however, those croakers have more pronounced striping, yellow pectoral fins, longer snouts and much shorter second dorsal fins.
From a conservation perspective the Longfin Croaker is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are fairly abundant at certain times of the year in the surf immediately adjacent to shore in the greater Los Cabos area but are generally too small in stature and only retained by subsistence fishermen.