Totoaba, Totoaba macdonaldi

Totoaba, Totoaba macdonaldi. Fish caught from coastal waters off San Felipe, Baja California, ca. 1954. Weight ca. 91 kg (200 lbs). Photograph courtesy of Tony Reyes, San Felipe, Baja California.

Totoaba, Totoaba macdonaldi, Juvenile. Fish caught within Gonzaga Bay, Baja California, April 2023. Length: 54 cm (21 inches). Photograph courtesy of Chris Wheaton, Fullerton, California.

Totoaba, Totoaba macdonaldi. Fish caught from a kayak within coastal waters of the northern Sea of Cortez off Baja California, April 2018. Length: 90 cm (2 feet 11 inches). An immediate “catch and release.”  Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Ben Cantrell, San Diego, California.

Totoaba, Totoaba macdonaldi. Fish caught from coastal waters off San Felipe, Baja California, April 2014. An immediate “catch and release.” Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Chris Wheaton, Fullerton, California.

Totoaba, Totoaba macdonaldi. Fish caught from coastal waters off Point Palmilla, Baja California Sur, October 2017. Length: 1.27 m (4 feet 2 inches). Catch courtesy of Jo Barcimo. Photograph courtesy of Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, La Playita, Baja California Sur. Productive discussions about the identification of this fish with H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California noted.

Totoaba, Totoaba macdonaldi. Fish caught off the beach at La Playita, Baja California Sur, May 2018. Length: 1.73 m (5 feet 8 inches). An epic video of this catch can be seen under: https://www.facebook.com/RInformativaBCS/videos/685530158455952/?v=685530158455952&external_log_id=3b24b88c7afa75d59d9917f1df7c80e6&q=Corvina%20off%20LA%20Playita%20beach%202018. Photograph and video link courtesy of Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, La Playita, Baja California Sur. Productive discussions about the identification of this fish with H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California noted.

Totoaba, Totoaba macdonaldi. Underwater photography taken of a live brood Totoaba at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada, Baja California. Photograph courtesy of Gene Kira.

The Totoaba, Totoaba macdonaldi, is a largest member of the Croaker or Sciaenidae Family, and is also known in Mexico as totoaba. It is the only species in the genus Totoaba, and it is found only in Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean.

The Totoaba has an elongated compressed fusiform body. They have a dusky silvery coloration with darker fins. The inside of their mouth is orange. The juveniles are spotted and spotted second dorsal fins. Their head is pointed and features moderately-sized eyes, a large oblique mouth, and a slightly projecting lower jaw. They do not have chin barbels, however, both their chin and snout have 5 pores. They also do not have canine teeth, a key to the identification. Their gill covers are smooth. Their anal fin has 2 spines, with the second spine being approximately two-thirds the length of the first ray, and 7 or 8 rays, with a short base; their caudal fin is slightly rounded; their first dorsal fin has 10 spines; their second dorsal fin has 1 spine and 23 to 26 rays; and, their pectoral fins are exceedingly long. They have 15 to 20 gill rakers. They are covered with rough scales.

The Totoaba is a demersal species that is found in shallow coastal waters at depths up to 24 m (80 feet). They reach a maximum of 2.00 m (6 feet 7 inches) in length and 100 kg (220 lbs) in weight but fish approaching that size have now vanished. Adults mainly feed on large crabs and sardines, and juveniles feed on small fish and small benthic organisms, such as amphipods, shrimp, and crabs. They have lifespans of up to twenty-five years. The Totobaba 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 Totoaba is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean but has a very limited distribution historically being found only in the northern half of the Sea of Cortez. Of late that have been showing up in the greater Los Cabos area of the Baja California Sur, as documented photographically above. They enter river basins, specifically the Colorado River Basin, in the early spring to spawn. After spawning the adults migrate back south along the west coast of the mainland while juveniles remain in the upper Gulf for two years before commencing the migration pattern.

The Totoaba can be confused with a series of other Croakers found in the northern Sea of Cortez including the Gulf Corvina, Cynoscion othonopterus, the Orangemouth Corvina, Cynoscion xanthulus, the Scalyfin Corvina, Cynoscion squamipinni, the Shortfin Corvina, Cynoscion parvipinnis, and the Yellowtail Corvina, Cynoscion stolzmanni, however, each of these Croakers have pectoral fins that are equal in length or shorter than their pelvic fins and they are smaller in stature.

From a conservation perspective the Totoaba is currently considered to be CRITICALLY ENDANGERED facing extinction in the near future. Although once considered abundant and formerly supporting an important commercial fishing industry (2,260 tons of Totoaba fillets were exported to the United States in 1942 having been harvested with both gill nets and dynamite) and sport fishery, populations in the Sea of Cortez have been decimated since the 1940s due to loss of spawning habitat from conversion and degradation of the Colorado River Delta via the curtailment of water flow and intensive overfishing. They require warm and low salinity waters for spawning. With a 96% diminished water flow and an increase in salinity by 35 ppm the Colorado River has become a hypersaline environment, which has altered the life history of the species. A total ban on fishing was declared by the Mexican Government in 1975. This species was placed on the Mexican Endangered Species list and the mouth of the Colorado River was deemed a preservation zone. In 1979 the Totoaba was added to the United States Endangered Species list. Although such conservation measures have been implemented, juveniles are casualties as by-catches within shrimp trawling fisheries. The Totoabas’ small swim bladder is highly valued for its high collagen content and some people believe that it can boost fertility and improve circulation and skin vitality. Due to the demand and extremely limited supply of these swim bladders, they are sold on the black market commanding prices of $1,000 to $5,000 per bladder in the United States and over $10,000 each in Asia. Current smuggling penalties for killing Totoaba include maximum penalties of up to twenty years in jail with fines up to $250,000. A small size cultivation effort has been in operation in Ensenada, Baja California, for the past few years and some releases into the wild have been conducted. The results of this effort are currently unknown.