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Spotted Seatrout

Atlantic Angel Shark Distribution

SURVEY CATCH DISTRIBUTION

Spotted Seatrout - Cynoscion nebulosus

*Information from New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection*

Spotted seatrout

Species Information

Size

Maximum 70 cm; common to 40 cm.

Habitat, biology, and fisheries

Found usually in river estuaries and shallow coastal marinewaters over sand bottoms, often associated with seagrass beds (as nursery for young); also in salt marshes and tidal pools of high salinity. Feeds mainly on crustaceans and fishes. Caught mainly with pound nets, gill nets, seines, and occasionally with bottom trawls; also by anglers who sometimes land 3 times the commercial catch on west coast of Florida. Marketed mostly fresh; a highly esteemed foodfish. Florida landing has reduced from 600 t (1980) to less than 100 t. (1995). The rapid decline of commercial catch in the last 2 decades is alarming. There is also a shift of the fishery to recreational fishing.

Distribution

Atlantic coast from Long Island to Florida and Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Laguna Madre, Mexico.