Bluefish of the Florida Panhandle

“Bluefish!” … “It’s just a school of bluefish!”  So yelled the lifeguard in Jaws II when Chief Brody had mistaken a school of bluefish for the rogue great white shark that was plaguing the town.  He would not have been the first to mistake these large schools for a larger fish, particularly a predatory shark, but as some know, bluefish are quite predatory themselves.

Growing up along the Florida panhandle we heard little about this species.  We had heard stories of large bluefish schooling along the Atlantic coast killing prey with their razor-sharp teeth and, at times, biting humans.  But not much was mentioned about them swimming along our shores.  But they do, and I have caught some.

Bluefish are one of several in a group Hoese and Moore refer to as “mackerel-like fish” in Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. They differ in that they lack the finlets found along the dorsal and ventral sides of the mackerel body and mackerels lack scales having a smoother skin.  Bluefish are the only members of the family Pomatomidae.  They can reach three feet in length and up to 30 pounds.  They travel in large schools viciously feeding on just about anything they can catch and seem to really like menhaden.  They move inshore for feeding and protection from larger ocean predators but do move offshore for breeding.

Bluefish landed from the Gulf of Mexico are much smaller than their Atlantic cousins, rarely weighing in more than three pounds.  They do have a deep blue-green color to them and thin caudal peduncle and forked tail giving them the resemblance of a mackerel or jack.  Some say they are bit too oily to eat while others enjoy them quite a bit.  There is a commercial fishery for them in Florida and, as you would expect, it is a larger fishery along the east coast.  Most of the panhandle counties have had commercial landings, albeit small ones.

Biogeographically, the blue fish are found all along the Atlantic seaboard and into the Gulf of Mexico.  It is listed as worldwide but seems to be absent from the Caribbean and other tropical seas.  This could be due to a distaste of warmer waters, or the lack of their prey targets.

They are an interesting and less known fish in our region.  Swimming in a school of them should be done with caution, there are reports of nips and bites from these voracious predators.