Pacific drum

Larimus pacificus is a fish of the family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers ^[1]. It lives in tropical coastal waters of the eastern Pacific, from Mexico to Peru, and does not exceed 32.0 cm total length ^[2]. In Tumbes it is called «bereche» and ranked among the most landed species of that region's small-scale fishery ^[3]. Its global category on the IUCN Red List is Least Concern ^[4].

The body is moderately short and not very deep, with a slightly arched back; the mouth is large and oblique, and the rear end of the upper jaw reaches past the middle of the eye ^[2]. The snout bears 3 pores, there are 20 to 21 gill rakers on the lower limb of the first gill arch, the pectoral fins have 16 to 17 rays and the scales are ctenoid ^[2].

It is grey to silvery brown, darker on the back, with distinct black stripes along the scale rows of the flanks; the fins are pale or greyish ^[2]. The common length is 18.0 cm and the maximum recorded is 32.0 cm total length ^[2].

It occurs in the tropical eastern Pacific, from Mexico to Peru, roughly between 24° N and 18° S ^[2]. It lives in neritic and pelagic coastal waters at depths of 29 to 50 m, and the database describes it as an uncommon species ^[2].

In northern Peru it turned up in the catches of the small-scale shrimp trawl fishery between Cabo Blanco and Máncora, in the Piura region, with nets working at 6.5 to 65 m depth and less than 5 miles from the coast ^[5].

It feeds mainly on planktonic crustaceans, and the database gives it a trophic level of 4.5 with a margin of ±0.7 ^[2].

In the small-scale shrimp trawl fishery of northern Peru it was one of the most abundant bycatch species: it made up 5.7 % of the catch weight, with a catch per hour of trawling of 4.7 kg, the fifth highest among all species ^[5].

Its global category on the IUCN Red List is Least Concern, according to the 2020 assessment ^[4].

In the shrimp trawl fishery of northern Peru it is discarded: the authors state that, because of its size or a lack of consumer acceptance in Peru, it was not retained, although it is sold or eaten elsewhere ^[5].

FishBase classes it as a minor commercial fishery resource and considers it harmless to people ^[2].

In Tumbes, the small-scale fishery between 1996 and 2010 rested on 20 species, and the most representative was the bereche, at 12.4 % of landings, according to a thesis that cites a 2010 report ^[3]. By contrast, in the small-scale shrimp trawl fishery of Piura it was discarded in 2019 and 2020 ^[5].

The available sources describe no diving sightings: in Peru it is known from fisheries. The trawl data come from 300 hauls by 22 vessels between Cabo Blanco and Máncora, from April 2019 to March 2020 ^[5], and the Tumbes landing data cover 1996 to 2010 ^[3].