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How to Identify Marine Fish of South Florida

South Florida is a paradise for both fishers and fish watchers: Its subtropical waters and varied habitats, from seagrass pastures to coral reefs to mangrove keys, encourage a great diversity of marine fishes. That diversity, in fact, can be intimidating for someone trying to identify a fish they've caught on the line, spotted during a coral-reef scuba dive or glimpsed from a kayak during a coastal paddle. But even a quick look usually turns up one or two outstanding features -- a distinctive striping, a sharpely shaped fin and dazzling color. Especially when armed with a field guide or other such illustrated reference, you can often make real headway, considering both physical and ecological characteristics.

Things You'll Need

Appropriate field guide

Instructions

- 1
  
  The tiger shark is the largest predator regularly encountered off the South Florida coast.
  
  Estimate or measure the fish's dimensions. The species off South Florida's Gulf and Atlantic coasts range widely in size. There are 2-inch bay anchovies, for example, which feast on plankton and, in turn, are eaten by a whole host of larger creatures. But there are also 8-foot tarpon weighing close to 300 pounds, not to mention even bigger sharks, such as the tiger shark, which may exceed 20 feet in length. The black marlin, a billfish, can reach a length of 15 feet.
- 2
  Look at the fish's coloration and pattern. Some, like the coney, may be a relatively solid color -- in this case orange. Many South Florida marine fish show latitudinal stripes, like the cobia; longitudinal banding like the belted sandfish; spotting or blotching like the tripletail; or combinations thereof, as in the yellow snapper with its golden stripes and spots. Some of the most colorful fish are those inhabiting South Florida's coral reefs, which exhibit a dazzling suite of hues and arrangements, such as the queen angelfish, with its red fins and distinctive greenish-yellow body and blue spotting,; to the blue parrot fish, with its deep-blue scaling.
- 3
  
  Barracudas are elongate and slender and quite menacing-looking, with their slim, razor-sharp teeth.
  
  Classify the fish's basic shape. This is another diagnostic with much variety in South Florida. A great barracuda, which favors reefs, seagrass beds and drop-offs, is remarkably slender and elongate, while the hefty groupers that shadow outcrops and ledges appear rotund, squat and wide-jawed. A jack crevalle has sharp-edged fins and a scissor tail, while a rock hind has rounded fins and a convex tail.
- 4
  Identify other prominent physical features of the fish in question. This might be a truly obvious, defining characteristic: the spear of a blue marlin, for example, or the eponymous headgear of a great hammerhead shark. But they might be more subtle, as in the visible sharp teeth on a bluefish, setting it apart from ostensibly similar-looking fish like yellowtails or bar jacks..
- 5
  
  Try to define the fish's habitat, as in a brackish, mangrove-lined channel.
  
  Define the fish's habitat, a useful piece of supporting information when trying to identify the animal. A well-camouflaged fish just glimpsed in a mass of sargassum weed floating on the ocean surface may well be a sargassumfish, which specializes in such a habitat. A big, robust shark better than 10 feet long encountered in mangrove labyrinths in a coastal lagoon is likely a bull shark, which frequently ranges into brackish and even freshwater environments, and less likely a tiger shark; one of a similar size seen in open offshore waters could be a number of species, requiring more intensive observation.

Animals & Science