Atlantic wreckfish
Wrackbarsch ( Polyprion americanus)
The grouper ( Polyprion americanus) is a species of the same family ( Polyprionidae ) within the perch family. The partially endangered fish lives in the eastern and western Atlantic and the Mediterranean; as hiding places he uses shipwrecks, which he received his name.
Features
The Wrackbarsch reaches a length of up to two meters and a weight of up to 45 kg as the maximum weight of 100 kg has been published. He has a stocky, high-backed and laterally flattened body with a large head. The mouth is upper constant and extends below the large eyes. Back and sides of the fish are brown to blue-green, juveniles have irregularly distributed dark spots.
In contrast to the groupers, to which he was previously counted, the operculum has instead of the jagged border only a sharp pick. The dorsal fin is high trained and notched behind the 11 hard jets, followed by 11 to 12 soft rays. The anal fin has 3 hard and 8 to 10 soft rays.
Dissemination
The grouper is occurring in the eastern and western Atlantic and in the Mediterranean reef and rock dwellers. He is widespread in the eastern Atlantic from Norway to the coast of South Africa and the Canary and Cape Verde Islands and the Mediterranean. In the western Atlantic the distribution area of Newfoundland, Canada to North Carolina ranges, also off the South American coast of Uruguay to Argentina. In the western Indian Ocean, it is documented in the Amsterdam Island and in the southwestern Pacific Ocean off New Zealand.
Way of life
The fish are site- faithful loner and live at depths up to 1,000 meters over sandy and rocky seabed, according to other sources, the maximum depth is about 600 meters and the fish hold is usually about 100 to 200 meters depth. Occasionally, the animals migrate in coastal regions further. Adult animals often will stay in caves and in shipwrecks.
They feed mainly on crustaceans, cephalopods and small fish.
Endangering
In the IUCN Red List of Wrackbarsch is performed due to the largely unknown population size in the category " data deficient ". The Brazilian population was classified as " critically endangered " due to the strong fishing pressure in the IUCN Red List and is threatened with extinction according to.