Texas Gulf Coast Fishing

Whitefin Sharksucker

WHITEFIN SHARKSUCKER Echeneis neucratoides

Whitefin Sharksucker have a distinctive first dorsal fin takes the form of a modified oval sucker-like organ with slat-like structures that open and close to create suction and take a firm hold against the skin of larger marine animals. By sliding backward, the Sharksucker can increase the suction, or it can release itself by swimming forward. Whitefin Sharksucker are commonly found attached to sharks, manta rays, whales, turtles and dugong (hence the common names 'sharksucker' and 'whalesucker'). Smaller Whitefin Sharksucker also fasten onto fish like tuna and swordfish.

Description: The most distinctive character of the sharksucker is mentioned above. It is a very slim fish, 11 or 12 times as long as it is deep, nearly round in cross section, and tapering to a very slender caudal peduncle. The sucking plate, reaching from close behind the tip of the snout back over the nape of the neck even with the middle of the pectoral fin, is about as broad as the head, flat, oval, and with 20 or more very conspicuous transverse plates. The soft dorsal fin and the anal fin both originate about the mid length of the body, and they both extend nearly to the base of the caudal fin. Both of them taper, too, from front to rear, but the anal is more concave in form than the dorsal. The caudal fin is slightly concave in old fish but in young ones its central rays are the longest. The ventral fins are pointed like the pectorals below which they stand, and their inner rays are attached to the skin of the abdomen for only a short distance. The broad-based pectoral fins are set so high up on the sides that their upper margins are close below the overlapping edge of the sucking plate.

Color: The general ground tint is slaty or dark brownish gray, with the belly nearly as dark as the back. Each side is marked by a broad darker brown or sooty stripe with white edges, that runs from the angle of the jaw to the base of the caudal fin but is interrupted by the eye and by the pectoral fin. The caudal fin is velvety black with white corners, a character noticeable enough to give rise to a vernacular name. The dorsal and anal fins are dark slate color or black, more or less margined with white. The pectorals and ventrals are black, either plain or more or less pale edged.

Size: Reaches about 38 inches.

Where Found: The species generally occurs in subtropical seas around the world, from the western Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico.