Los Toros y Las Sardinas

This is a story about life and death on a beach in Bahía de Banderas. The main characters are jurel toro, or simply toro, the local name for the Pacific crevalle jack (Carangidae), and sardina, the local name for the flatiron herring (Clupeidae). 

Jurel toro or Pacific crevalle jack

Sardina or flatiron herring

On several mornings in June, we witnessed nearshore feeding frenzies when schools of 20-25 inch toro attacked schools of 3-4 inch sardina in front of our place on Playa Negra south of Puerto Vallarta. We could see cruising schools of silver-green toro in the shallow water and the dark patches of sardinas around the small rocky reefs of Punta Negra. The toros were looking for sardinas, which occur in shallow water over sandy bottom (link), and when they found them, all hell broke loose.

School of sardinas in shallow water and brown pelican

Toro feeding frenzy

Toro feeding frenzy

Sardinas try to escape by swimming to the surface and into shallow water. Toros follow and their attack creates frothy whitewater visible for some distance, which attracts the attention of fish-eating birds, including brown pelicans, magnificent frigatebirds, cormorants and snowy egrets. The feeding frenzy also attracts fishermen, who create their own frenzy running up and down the beach trying to catch sardinas for bait and toro for dinner.

Handling for toro on the beach on Playa Negra

Handlining for toro with brown pelicans diving on sardinas in the background

Landing a toro - he caught five in less than 30 minutes

Groups of toros drive the sardinas up against the reef or into shallow water where the only escapes are into the air (briefly) and onto the beach, where they are collected for bait, eaten by birds or die of asphyxiation.

Toros driving sardinas into shallow water

Toros attacking sardinas in shallow water

Sardinas trying to escape by swimming into the beach

Sardinas stranded on the beach

Snowy egrets inspecting a fisherman's bait bucket

The following pictures are enlargements of sections of feeding frenzies that capture the sheer panic of the sardinas leaping from the water and the ferociousness of the toro pursuing them into the air with open mouths.

Toros chasing sardinas

Toros chasing sardinas

I took to the water several times with the camera. Here’s what it's like swimming in a school of sardinas. You can't see the surface and you can't see the bottom. It's very disorienting – the school is moving independently of the surge, which is moving us back and forth, and the swell, which is moving us up and down. 

Sardinas

Sardinas

And here’s what it’s like swimming in a school of toros. The first picture was taken with a smartphone from a condo balcony at Punta Negra by Shelli, who was vacationing there with her family. I’m swimming on the surface and the toros are starting to swirl around me.

Snorkeling surrounded by toros

Toros

Toros

In a couple of weeks, the large (3-4 inch) sardinas were gone – either they were consumed by the toro or escaped offshore (I think the former) – to be replaced by smaller schools of smaller (2 inch) sardinas that also quickly dwindled in numbers. At the peak, it was an amazing display of power and cooperative hunting by schools of hundreds of toros.

Toros

According to Humann and DeLoach (2004), toro maximum size is 30 inches, although the world record toro taken off Costa Rica was 40 inches (link). A 25-inch toro would weight about 9 pounds (link). Toro is Spanish for bull. Perhaps they get their name for their aggressiveness, because it's not for their size – several members of the jack family that occur in Mexican waters grow to 4-5 feet long and 50-100 lbs (link; link).

The large schools of toros moved on or dispersed and the fishermen focused on needlefish (Belonidae). An old man on the beach at Los Arcos cleaning needlefish for three hardliners told me that they make excellent ceviche.

Handliner catching a needlefish with a bait bucket floating nearby

A boy learning the basics of handlining from his father

Humann, P. and N. DeLoach. 2004. Reef Fish Identification: Baja to Panama. New World Publications, Jacksonville, FL. 342 pp.