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Unusual Fish of Maryland’s Coastal Bays
Most anglers are familiar with the popular sportfish species they target in the Ocean City area. Summer flounder, striped bass, sea trout, bluefish and tautog are well known, but this week’s article highlights some of the fish you may not frequently encounter while fishing or may not even know exist in our waters.
Maryland DNR’s Fisheries Service Coastal Fisheries Program focuses on data collection, data analysis, and management for our coastal fisheries resources. The five member team is led by Carrie Kennedy, and includes biologists Angel Willey, Steve Doctor, Gary Tyler, and Chris Jones. They conduct year round sampling of the inshore and offshore waters of Maryland’s Atlantic coast. The following are some of the lesser known marine fish of our coastal waters that have been observed during biological surveys of the coastal bays. Information was obtained from MD DNR biologist Angel Willey, who has documented their presence over many years. For more information about the Coastal Fisheries
Program and the work they do, please visit:
http://www.dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/coastal/.
Sharks, Skates and Rays
Distinguished from most other fish by their cartilaginous skeletal systems, many surf fishermen encounter the smooth dogfish in the surf, but few realize the other species that are common in the surf zone and back bays. They include the spiny dogfish, sandtiger, blacktip, Atlantic sharpnose, sandbar, and dusky sharks. Not common, but occasionally encountered is the Atlantic angel shark, also known as “sand devil”.
Many anglers confuse stingrays with skates. Most stingrays have one or two stingers on their tails, and give birth to “live” pups. Skates lack stingers, and reproduce by laying egg cases, sometimes referred to as “mermaid purses”. Cow nosed stingrays are well known to fishermen, as they are commonly seen cruising the shallows of the back bays, and often wind up unintentionally on the line of recreational fishermen. Our inshore waters are home to one commonly encountered species of skate, and several species of rays. The clearnose skate is a common surf catch, and other common ray species include the smooth butterfly ray, spiny butterfly ray, and the southern stingray.
Porgies & Grunts
Atlantic sheepshead are a prized catch by our anglers, but a variety of other related species from this family of fishes can be found in our coastal waters, including: scup (porgy), pinfish, spottail pinfish and pigfish.
Seahorses & Pipefishes
You won’t ever find one of these fish species on the end of your line, but most folks are surprised to hear that we have them in our waters. Lined seahorses, northern pipefish and dusky pipefish feed on small invertebrates and can be found in the surf zone and coastal bays.
Puffers
In some years, northern puffers (also known as blowfish or sea squab) are commonly caught by anglers fishing Maryland’s coastal bays. Other related species include the southern puffer, common trunkfish and the striped burrfish.
Flatfishes
Summer flounder are one of the most highly sought after and recognizable sport fish species. Historically, the lesser known winter flounder supported a modest fishery for sport anglers. A variety of other flatfishes can be found in Maryland’s coastal waters. They are generally seperated into two categories, left handed (eyes on the left side of the fish) and right handed (eyes on the right side of the fish). Left handed species include the summer flounder, southern flounder, fourspot flounder, windowpane, smallmouth flounder and blackcheek toungefish. Right handed flounders include the winter flounder and the hogchoker.
Other Fish
Summertime brings a range of other seasonal visitors that have a preference for warmer water temperatures. It is widely thought that many of these fish species are young, juvenile fish brought to Maryland’s coastline by warm water gyres spun off by the Gulf Stream. Among the quasi-tropical species are spotfin butterflyfish, orange filefish, planehead filefish, grey triggerfish, ladyfish, great barracuda, harvestfish, Atlantic moonfish, lookdown, bluerunner, permit, and pompano.
This is just a snapshot of the diverse array of species that inhabit Maryland’s coastal waters. Special thanks to MD DNR Fisheries Service biologist Angel Willey for her input into this week’s article. If you are interested in learning more about the species listed, you
may contact Angel at [email protected].
If you have any questions regarding fishing or fisheries management in Ocean City and Maryland’s Atlantic coast, please send them to Keith Lockwood: [email protected] or call 410-226-0078.
