harvest fish

harvest fish, common name for a fish of the family Stromateidae (butterfish family), a family of fishes with almost circular bodies and small mouths. The butterfish, or dollarfish (genus Peprilus), is found from Maine to South Carolina during the summer. The harvest fish (Poronotus triacanthus), a more southerly species, is called whiting in the Chesapeake Bay area, where it is most abundant. Members of the butterfish family range from 6 to 9 in. (15–23 cm) in length and average 1-2 lb (0.23 kg) in weight. They are found in schools on sandy bottoms close to shore. They are known for their habit of swimming under certain species of jellyfishes, where they find shelter and perhaps a food supply of small invertebrates that have become entangled in the tentacles, but they are also subject to fatal stings inflicted by these tentacles. The so-called California pompano is a common Pacific harvest fish. Harvest fishes are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Perciformes, family Stromateidae.