Common Weakfish

• The name weakfish refers not to its strength but to the fragility of the muscles of its mouth, which tear easily and let the fish shake off the hook.
• The males vibrate their swim bladder with specialised muscles and produce a drumming audible from a boat during the spawning season.
• It has been listed as Endangered by the IUCN since 2019, an unusual case for a fish in an inshore fishery that is well managed on paper.
• It is a fish that sings. Males vibrate the swim bladder with specialised muscles and produce a drumming audible from the surface, which they use to attract females in the spawning aggregations.
• That sound makes it possible to locate its spawning grounds with hydrophones, and today it is a routine monitoring tool in the estuaries of the east coast of the United States.
• It is called weakfish in English not for any weakness but for the fragility of its mouth: the hook tears out easily and the fish slips free.
• Its population has collapsed since the 1980s. The diagnosis points to very high natural mortality rather than to direct fishing, which is why catch restrictions have not been enough to bring it back.
• It is an estuary predator that eats mainly forage fish and shrimp.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (fish)

Habitat and environment

Estuaries and coastal waters of the north-western Atlantic

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Cynoscion regalis