Blackfin snapper

The blackfin snapper (Lutjanus buccanella) goes by many names—blackspot snapper, blackfin red snapper, gun-mouth backfin, gun-mouth snapper, redfish, and wrenchman. This marine ray-finned fish belongs to the snapper family Lutjanidae and lives in the western Atlantic Ocean. It is important to commercial fisheries, but people should be aware that it has been linked to ciguatera poisoning.

Taxonomy

French zoologist Georges Cuvier first described the species in 1828, calling it Mesoprion buccanella. He listed the type locations as Martinique and St. Thomas Island in the West Indies. The species name comes from the local Martinique name for the fish, boucanella.

Description

The blackfin snapper has the typical almond-shaped, deep, and laterally compressed body of Lutjanus snappers. Its dorsal fin is continuous but split into two lobes, the tail fin is blunt, the pectoral fins are long, and the anal fin is rounded. The mouth is large, with a slightly protrusible upper jaw that tucks under the cheekbone when closed.

Each jaw has at least one row of pointed, conical teeth, some of which are enlarged into canines. The vomerine teeth form a chevron shape with a rear extension down the roof of the mouth, and there is a single tooth patch on each side. The preopercular notch and knob are not well developed.

Scale rows on the back run diagonally from the lateral line. The dorsal fin has 10 spines and 14 soft rays, with a slight notch after the spines; the anal fin has 3 spines and 8 soft rays. The largest recorded total length is 75 cm (30 in), though 50 cm (20 in) is more typical, and the maximum published weight is 14.0 kg (30.9 lb). Overall, the fish is red, fading to silvery-red on the belly.

The tail, anal, and pelvic fins are yellowish. A dark, comma-shaped mark at the base of the pectoral fins gives the fish its most common name. Juveniles look like adults but have a bright yellow patch on the upper part of the tail stalk.

Distribution and habitat

This species is found in the western Atlantic, from Bermuda and North Carolina south along the U.S. coast to the Bahamas, then west into the Gulf of Mexico from the Florida Keys, the Flower Garden Banks, and nearby areas to Veracruz, Mexico, south to the northern Yucatán Peninsula and northwestern Cuba. It also lives throughout the Caribbean Sea and along the South American coast as far south as São Paulo, Brazil.