Pile Perch, Phanerodon vacca
Pile Perch, Phanerodon vacca. Fish caught from within the Puget Sound, Des Moines, Washington, November 2020. Length: 26 cm (10 inches). Catch, photographs and identifications courtesy of Luke Ovgard, Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Pile Perch, Phanerodon vacca. Fish caught within San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, California, July 2014. Length: 30 cm (12 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Eli (obsessiveangling.wordpress.com).
Pile Perch, Phanerodon vacca. Fish caught from shore in Belcarra, British Columbia, Canada, July 2007. Length: 18 cm (7.1 inches). Catch, photograph, and identification courtesy of Kenneth Tse, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Pile Perch, Phanerodon vacca. Underwater photograph taken in the coastal waters off Monterey, California, February 2022. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Hillis, Ivins, Utah.
The Pile Perch, Phanerodon vacca, is a member of the Surfperch or Embiotocidae Family, that is also known as Splittail and in Mexico as mojarra mojarra muellera. Globally, there are three species in the genus Phanerodon, of which two are found in Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The Pile Perch has a highly compressed deep oval body with a depth that is 41% to 45% of standard length. They are predominantly gray in color with a dark mid-body bar on their sides. When breeding they have bright yellow anal and pelvic fins and the males have dark black spots on the snout. The juveniles have dark vertical bars. Their head is pointed with a small terminal mouth, equipped with a single row of short blunt teeth and small eyes set above the mid-line. Their anal fin has 3 spines and 25 to 31 rays; their caudal fin is deeply forked; their dorsal fin is continuous with 9 to 11 spines and 21 to 25 rays with the soft dorsal being long (a key to their identification); and their pectoral fins have 19 to 22 rays. They have 18 to 22 gill rakers. Their body is covered with small scales.
The Pile Perch is normally found around structures that include oil and gas platforms, kelp beds, and rocks. They can also be found over sand substrate in the intertidal zone, open coasts, sheltered bays and brackish waters. They can be found as solitary individuals or in schools that have in excess of 200 individuals. They are known to prefer waters with temperatures of 13oC (55oF) to 19oC (66oF) and are found at depths up to 100 m (330 feet). They reach a maximum of 44 cm (17 inches) in length. As of January 1, 2024, the International Game Fish Association world record stood at 1.13 kg (2 lbs 8 oz) with the fish caught in coastal waters off Tiburon, California in December 2016. They are active during daylight hours, feeding on the incoming tide. They prey on barnacles, bivalves, brittle stars, crabs, fish, fish eggs, octopus, sand dollars, shrimp, and snails. In turn they are preyed upon by a wide variety of fishes, marine mammals and sea birds. Reproduction is viviparous with internal fertilization and each female carrying seven to eight developing young. The juveniles leave the bays shortly after birth and do not return until mature. They have lifespans of thirteen years. The Pile Perch 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 Pile Perch is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean but has a limited distribution, being found only from Guerrero Negro, Baja California, northward along the central and northwest coasts of Baja.
The Pile Perch is a straightforward identification that cannot be easily confused with any other species due to a dark bar on their sides and on the elongated portion of the soft dorsal fin.
From a conservation perspective the Pile Perch is currently considered to be of Least Concern, with stable, widely distributed populations. Although they are small in stature, they are considered to be an excellent food fish. Historically they are considered to be an important commercial fish. Today they are no longer fished commercially. They are an important targeted species for recreational anglers and are caught from boats, piers and rocky shorelines. They were also a mainstay of Native Americans. The Pile Perch has been dated to the Miocene Period, 5,300,000 years ago.