- About
- With 500+ faculty, staff and students and three campus locations, the Batten School & VIMS are equipped to tackle pressing challenges through research, education and advisory service.
  Learn More
- Research & Advisory
- Purple marsh crabs are significantly disrupting carbon cycling in salt marshes along the East Coast of the U.S., according to a study led by Batten School & VIMS scientists.
  Learn More
- Batten School
- The R. Todd Stravitz Scholars Program will provide full tuition support for students pursuing the new bachelor’s degree in coastal & marine sciences at the Batten School & VIMS.
  
  Read More
- Engage
- Popular, free camps enable rising third through eighth graders to learn about the Chesapeake Bay, coastal ecosystems and environmental stewardship.
  
  Read More
- News & Events
- National TRAP Program funds large-scale cleanup of discarded fishing gear, first round of subawards totaling more than $1.4M supports 11 projects focused on removing derelict fishing gear from coastal waters in nine U.S. states and Palau.
  
  Learn More
- Giving
- As an expression of parental pride in their daughter, Taylor Spencer ‘83 and Martha Spencer recently established an undergraduate field research endowment at the Batten School & VIMS.
  
  Read More

Harvestfish

Peprilus paru

Information and species illustrations courtesy of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Species Information
Size Maximum to 30 cm, commonly to 18 cm.
Diagnostic characters
Habitat, biology, and fisheries A pelagic fish forming large schools in coastal bays, inshore waters over the continental shelf and around islands at moderate depths (50 to 70 m) where it occurs throughout the year; juveniles found in shallow coastal waters under floating weeds or in association with medusae. Adults feed mainly on jellyfish and small fish, crustaceans and worms; the juveniles are plankton feeders. Caught mainly with otter trawls, also seines; marketed fresh and frozen, exported to Japan where it has been well received. Fishing in the area occurs mainly in inshore waters off eastern Florida, the northeastern part of the Gulf, western Venezuela and the Guianas; also may be fished occasionally on the Campeche Bank. Prior to about 1990, except for a short period in the early 1960s, only negligible amounts of harvestfish were landed. Venezuela has developed its fishery since then, and currently (1996) is landing about 2,000 t annually. Cumulative landings until 2024 total 26,738 t.
Distribution Florida, Gulf of Mexico, coasts of Venezuela, Trinidad and the Antilles: infrequent in the western Caribbean, and absent from Bermuda and Bahamas. Along the Atlantic coasts of America it extends from about Chesapeake Bay (straying rarely to the Gulf of Maine) south to warm continental shelf waters of Argentina.
Citations Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 1: Introduction, molluscs, crustaceans, hagfishes, sharks, batoid fishes, and chimaeras. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 1-600. Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 2: Bony fishes part 1 (Acipenseridae to Grammatidae). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 601-1374. Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 2 (Opistognathidae to Molidae), sea turtles and marine mammals. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 1375-2127.