Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper, Heteropriacantus carolinus
Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper, Heteropriacanthus carolinus, Juvenile. Fish provided by commercial fishermen of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, December 2010. Length: 12 cm (5.0 inches). Identification courtesy of H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.
Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper, Heteropriacanthus carolinus. Both fish provided by commercial bait salesmen, Puerto Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, November 2008. Length: 25 cm (9.8 inches) and 26 cm (10.2 inches), respectfully.
Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper, Heteropriacanthus carolinus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, March 2012. Length: 26 cm (10 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Eli (obsessiveangling.wordpress.com).
Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper, Heteropriacanthus carolinus. Underwater photograph taken in the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, October 2019. Photograph courtesy of Bob Hillis, Ivins, Utah.
The Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper, Heteropriacanthus carolinus, is a member of the Bigeye or Pricanthidae Family. They are also known as Pacific Glasseye and in Mexico as catalufa de las Marianas. Globally, there are three species in the genus Heteropriacanthus, with one being found in Mexican waters of the Atlantic Ocean and one, this species, in Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper is named for their large eyes and are characterized by a strong, compressed, and elongated body that has a depth that is 33 to 37% of standard length. They are a uniform pinkish red color; this includes the fins and the iris of the eyes. Their anal fin, caudal and second dorsal fins have elliptical dark spots. Their head profiles are symmetrical with a large upturned mouth and a projecting lower jaw and they have a large flat spine on their gill cover. Their anal fin has 3 spines and 13 or 14 rays; their caudal fin is slightly rounded; their dorsal fin has 10 spines and 12 or 13 rays; their pectoral fins have 18 or 19 rays; and, their pelvic fins are short and broadly fused to the belly. They are covered with large scales. Their lateral line is prominent.
The Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper is found over and within rocky bottoms at depths up to 300 m (1,000 feet). They reach a maximum of 50 cm (20 inches) in length. They are reported to be nocturnal feeders. The Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper 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 Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper is not a difficult fish to identify due to their elongated oval bodies, uniform pinkish color with modest fin spotting, and their strongly oblique mouths. They are virtually identical to the Atlantic Glasseye Snapper or Glasseye Snapper, Heteropricanthus cruentatus, from the Atlantic Ocean, from which they have recently been separated.
In Mexican waters the Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper range from Cedros Island, Baja California, southward along the central and southwest coasts of Baja, from La Paz to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, along the southeast coast of Baja and from Mazatlán, Sinaloa south to Guatemala along the coast of the mainland. They are more prominent around the Mexican oceanic islands of the Pacific Ocean.
From a conservation perspective the Indio-Pacific Glasseye Snapper is currently considered to be of Least Concern with widely distributed populations. Juveniles are available in and around the Puerto Los Cabos marina where they are caught as a by-catch with some frequency by live bait salesmen using large cast nets. I have only caught one or two in that location pre-dawn using a Sabiki rig. Since they are similar to the Popeye Catalufa, they are most likely considered to be very marginal table fare and only retained by subsistence fishermen and would be considered a “catch and release.”