The leatherjacket fish or leather jack, ''Oligoplites saurus'', is a species of jack in the family

Carangidae The Carangidae are a family of ray-finned fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, runners, and scads. It is the largest of the six families included within the order Carangiformes. Some authorities classify it as the only family ...

. Leather jack may also refer to other members of the Carangidae, such as the

pilot fish The pilot fish (''Naucrates ductor'') is a carnivorous fish of the trevally, or jackfish family, Carangidae. It is widely distributed and lives in warm or tropical open seas. Description The pilot fish congregates around sharks, rays, and sea ...

. The largest are about a foot long.

Distribution

There are two subspecies of ''Oligoplites saurus''. The

nominate subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

''O.s. saurus'' is distributed in the western Atlantic Ocean from

Chatham, Massachusetts Chatham () is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. Chatham is located at the southeast tip of Cape Cod and has historically been a fishing community. First settled by the English in 1664, the township was originally called Mo ...

south along the U.S. coast, throughout the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and along the South American coast to

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

, Brazil. The other subspecies ''O. s. inornatus'' is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from southern

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, much of the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...

to Ecuador, including the Galapagos and

Malpelo Island Malpelo is a small oceanic island in the eastern Pacific Ocean, located about west of the Colombian mainland with a military post manned by the Colombian Armed Forces. It consists of a sheer and barren rock with three high peaks, the highest ...

Feeding

It voraciously devours small fish and

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

, often in company with larger predatory species. Leatherjackets feed on small fish including the silver perch.

As food

Traditionally, the leather jacket has not been eaten, but recently, with large-scale farming of the fish, it has become common at market. The fish has a mild, oily taste similar to

Spanish mackerel Scomberomorini is a tribe of ray-finned saltwater bony fishes that is commonly known as the Spanish mackerels, seerfishes or seer fish. This fish closely resembles the King Mackerel. This tribe is a subset of the mackerel family (Scombridae) – ...

or bluefish. It has occasionally been the prey to

blue swimmer crab Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical sp ...

, as juvenile fish in sea grass beds.

References

External links

Fish and Wildlife Service

FishBase

leatherjacket fish The leatherjacket fish or leather jack, ''Oligoplites saurus'', is a species of jack in the family Carangidae. Leather jack may also refer to other members of the Carangidae, such as the pilot fish. The largest are about a foot long. Distribut ...

Fish of the Western Atlantic Fish of Mexican Pacific coast Western Central American coastal fauna

{{Perciformes-stub