Paloma pompano

Trachinotus paitensis is a fish of the family Carangidae, described by Cuvier in 1832 ^[1]. It has a deep, strongly compressed body and reaches about 51 cm in total length ^[2]. It lives in the eastern Pacific, from southern California to Chile, and adults form schools over shallow sandy areas near the coast ^[2]. It feeds on small snails, shrimp larvae and other invertebrates of the seabed ^[3]. Its global IUCN Red List category is Least Concern ^[4]. In Peru the Instituto del Mar del Perú calls it pámpano ^[5].

It has a deep, strongly compressed body, a small mouth and tiny bristle-like teeth in the jaws ^[2]. The dorsal fin carries 6 spines, followed by 1 more spine and 24 to 27 soft rays, and the lower branch of the first gill arch bears 8 to 10 gill rakers ^[2].

The upper third of the body is dark and the belly is white, with golden glints on the flanks; it has no spots or marks that set it apart ^[2]. The largest recorded size is 51 cm in total length, and 30 cm is typical ^[2]. A diet study describes it as having an extremely small mouth, which restricts the type and size of prey it can exploit ^[6].

It occurs in the eastern Pacific, from Redondo Beach, in southern California, to Chile, and includes the Galápagos Islands ^[2]. It is one of 35 species of the family Carangidae present in the central-eastern Pacific, with a cited range from California to Chile ^[3].

It is a marine benthopelagic species, recorded between 0 and 100 m depth; adults live in coastal waters and gather in schools over shallow sandy areas ^[2]. In Peru, the Instituto del Mar del Perú recorded it in 2019 among the fish cast onto the beach at Parachique, in Sechura province, Piura region ^[5].

It is an opportunistic carnivore. In San Ignacio Lagoon, in Baja California Sur (Mexico), 82 stomachs of fish caught with a gillnet in May and August 1992 were examined, and 11 food components were identified ^[3]. By number, the most frequent were snails of the genus Bittium (45.9 %), mysis stages of shrimps of the genus Penaeus (14.8 %), swimming-crab megalopae (11.7 %), snails of the genus Anachis (9.2 %) and amphipods (7.1 %) ^[3]. By weight, Anachis (36.1 %) and gastropod remains (30.2 %) predominated ^[3].

Another analysis from the same lagoon, with 82 stomachs of this species, found only 8 prey types, the fewest among the 5 species compared, and every stomach held food ^[6]. In spring Bittium and gastropod remains dominated, and in summer Penaeus larvae and Anachis ^[6]. The authors place it among the mollusc consumers and explain the abundance of Bittium by the size of its mouth, which admits only very small prey ^[6].

In San Ignacio Lagoon it is one of the dominant members of the fish fauna and acts as a predator of invertebrates living on the bottom ^[3]. Its diet is narrow, with low breadth values, and the overlap of its food with that of the other 4 dominant species in the lagoon was low ^[6]. Its main prey changed between spring and summer, and the authors regard it as an opportunistic carnivore ^[6].

Its global IUCN Red List category is Least Concern ^[4]. The assessment dates from 30 April 2008 ^[2]. FishBase estimates its vulnerability to fishing as low to moderate, at 33 out of 100 ^[2].

FishBase lists it in minor commercial fisheries and rates it as excellent for human consumption ^[2]. In Peru, the Instituto del Mar del Perú names it pámpano among the fish stranded in 2019 at the cove of Parachique, in Sechura Bay ^[5].

In Peru, the literature we could consult gives only one local record: on 12 March 2019, staff of the Instituto del Mar del Perú coastal laboratory in Paita recorded pámpanos among fish stranded along about 1000 m of beach at the cove of Parachique, in Sechura, Piura ^[5]. It was a stranding during a scallop mortality episode in the bay, with oxygen-poor bottom water, and not an observation of live fish ^[5].