Mexican Lookdown, Selene brevoortii

Mexican Lookdown, Selene brevoortii. Fish caught from coastal waters off Mazatlán, Sinaloa, October 2017. Length: 26 cm (10 inches). Catch and photograph courtesy of George Brinkman, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Mexican Lookdown, Selene brevoortii. Fish caught from coastal waters within Muertos Bay, Baja California Sur, January 2016 Length: 30 cm (12 inches). Catch and photograph courtesy of Brad Murakami, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.

Mexican Lookdown, Selene brevoortii. Fish provided by the commercial bait salesmen of Puerto Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, September 2019. Length: 38 cm (15 inches).

Mexican Lookdown, Selene brevoortii. Underwater photographs taken in coastal waters off Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, July 2023. Photographs courtesy of Kevin Erwin, Seattle, Washington.

Mexican Lookdown, Selene brevoortii. Underwater photograph taken in the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, October 2019. Photograph courtesy of Bob Hillis, Ivins, Utah.

The Mexican Lookdown, Selene brevoortii, is an exotic looking member of the Jack or Carangidae Family, that is also known as the Pacific Lookdown and in Mexico as jorobado mexicano. In the greater Los Cabos area they are known as pompanos and/or tortillas. Globally, there are nine species in the genus Selene, of which six are found in Mexican waters, three in the Atlantic and three in the Pacific Ocean.

The Mexican Lookdown has a strongly compressed pentagonally-shaped body with a depth that is 56% to 60% of standard length. They are uniformly silver in color. They have a deep head with a steep concave forehead and snout profile. Their mouth is oblique and ends well before the eyes. Their anal fin are exceedingly long with 2 standalone spines followed by 1 spine and 17 to 18 rays; their caudal fin has a slender base and is deeply forked; their first dorsal fin is exceedingly long with a long base and has 8 spines; their second dorsal fin a long base and 1 spine and 20 to 24 rays; their pectoral fins are long; and their pelvic fins are short. They have no isolated finlets after their second dorsal and anal fins. They have 7 or 8 gill rakers on the upper arch and 29 to 34 gill rakers on the lower arch. Their scutes are very small and poorly developed. Their body appears devoid of scales.

The Mexican Lookdown is a pelagic schooling species found inshore and in estuaries demersal over sandy bottoms at depths up to 50 m (165 feet). They reach a maximum of 42 cm (17 inches) in length. The Mexican Lookdown is  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 Mexican Lookdown is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean with the exception that they are absent from the northern half of the Sea of Cortez.

The Mexican Lookdown can be confused with the Mexican Moonfish, Paraselene orstedii (oblique forehead; long pelvic fins) and the Pacific Moonfish, Selene peruviana (short anal and dorsal fins; no pelvic fins).

From a conservation perspective the Mexican Lookdown is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are uncommon but can occasionally be caught predawn with Sabiki rigs tipped with squid. They are also caught on occasion with large cast nets and sold as live bait fish targeting Dorado, Striped Marlin and Yellowfin Tuna. They are considered an excellent food fish by locals.