Range and Behavior
The spot croaker is most commonly found between the Chesapeake Bay and South Carolina. It is also found along the Atlantic coast of the US, the Florida Keys, and the Gulf of Mexico, but in smaller populations. They inhabit costal areas, no deeper than 60 m. This appears to be due to the tendency of Spot croakers to ascend in response to higher salinity concentrations which would be experienced in the lower depths. During the summer months, spot croakers inhabit shallower bays and estuaries and move out into the costal waters during the winter months as the temperature drops; the northern populations also migrate south for the winter until the water warms up again.
Spot croakers are bottom feeders, and their diets consist of worms, mollusks,small crustaceans, and detritus. As they grow, the size of their prey increases. Predators of the spot croaker include striped bass, weakfish, summer flounder, bluefish, and various species of sharks.
Read more about this topic: Spot Croaker
Famous quotes containing the words range and, range and/or behavior:
“They didn’t know
how
my heart woke
to a range and measure
of song
I hadn’t known.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“No doubt, the short distance to which you can see in the woods, and the general twilight, would at length react on the inhabitants, and make them savages. The lakes also reveal the mountains, and give ample scope and range to our thought.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“No one is without Christianity, if we agree on what we mean by that word. It is every individual’s individual code of behavior by means of which he makes himself a better human being than his nature wants to be, if he followed his nature only. Whatever its symbol—cross or crescent or whatever—that symbol is man’s reminder of his duty inside the human race.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)