Native Fish Of The United States Of America

The United States of America is a unitary federal presidential country made up of fifty states. The country has a population of approximately 324 million.It is the third most populous country in the world. Washington DC is the capital city while New York City is the largest city. There is no official language at the federal level, but English is the national language. Whites make up 72.4% of the total population. The other ethnic groups include blacks (12.6%), Multiracial (2.9%), Asians (4.8%), and Native Americans (0.9%). Due to the vast area occupied by the country, it has a wide diversity of flora and fauna. In this article, we will look at some of the native fish of the country.

Pacific Cod

The Pacific cod is scientifically known as Gadus macrocephalus. It is a relatively huge fish that grows to three feet and can weigh up to 33 pounds when fully grown. The fish has catfish-like whiskers on its lower jaw and three separate dorsal fins. The Pacific code is found in depths of 3,000 feet around the Pacific Ocean and the Yellow Sea. The fish is an important food species in America, but the government highly regulates its fishing. The quota has been allotted to the fishermen using line fishing, pots, and trawls. There has not been enough evidence indicating the need to list the fish as one of the endangered species in the country.

Longnose Gar

The Longnose Gar is a primitive freshwater fish found along the eastern coasts of North and Central America. Archaeological evidence shows that the fish was present in Africa, Asia, Europe, and America 100 million years ago. Although the longnose gar is a freshwater fish, some of them have been found in salinities of up to 31 parts per thousand. The fish largely inhabit places with stone outcrops, vegetation, and nearby felled trees. They feed on small fish, insects, and crustaceans. Larger fish also prey on the smaller fish, and they mainly feed at night. The lifespan of the fish is 15 to 20 years with the oldest ever documented gar living up to the age of 39. They are relatively large and can measure up to four feet and weigh 55 pounds. Their population is on the decline due to overfishing, habitat loss, pollution, dams and road construction, and manipulation of aquatic systems by human activities.

Sturgeon Chub

The Sturgeon Chub is a small, slender fish with a long flat snout. It grows up to three inches in length. The snout of the fish resembles that of the Atlantic sturgeon and hence the name sturgeon chub. Spawning takes place in June where the female lays its eggs on clean sand and sometimes on gravel. There is little sexual dimorphism exhibited by the fish, and it is only the male that develops small tubercles behind the gills during breeding. The primary habitat of the fish is swift flowing rivers with gravel bottoms.

Dusky Pipefish

The Dusky pipefish is a small fish measuring around eight inches in length. It exhibits reversed sex roles wherein the females deposit their eggs in into the male’s brood pouch during mating. The males’ then fertilize the eggs and take care of the eggs by carrying them and feeding the embryo through a placenta. Both males and females mate with multiple partners, and the male is the limiting sex as they can only carry a certain number of eggs in their pouch at a time. The females, however, have more eggs than they can deposit. After hatching, the fish does not give any parental care to the young ones.

Other Notable Fish Found in the United States

Other notable fish found in the United States include the Atlantic Salmon which is found in the Northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers flowing into the the North Atlantic, the Walleye which is found in the Northern United States as well as Canada, and the Bluegill (also known as the copper nose) which is native to the streams and rivers of North America.