Distribution:
Marine and brackish tropical and subtropical waters of North and Central America (also freshwater).
Habitat:
Common in mangrove estuaries and other nearshore areas, often penetrating into freshwater, in depths usually less than 20 m.
Remarks:
Snooks have a concave snout profile, a large mouth (the lower jaw forward of the upper jaw), and two separate dorsal fins. There also is a dark lateral line extending to the posterior margin of the caudal. They are primarily piscivorous and can be up to 1.3 m in length. Snooks are known to have a high tolerance to salinity changes.
These species generally are highly regarded as sportfishes.
Centropomidae comprises one genus (Centropomus) with 12 species.
References:
Allen & Robertson 1994;
Bussing, pp. 987-995, in: Fischer et al. 1995;
Helfman et al. 1997;
Nelson 2006;
Orrell, pp. 1286-1293, in: Carpenter 2002