---
title: Greater Amberjack (Seriola dumerili)
scientific_name: Seriola dumerili
common_name: Greater Amberjack
taxon: Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-12T10:19:46.574Z
updated: 2026-08-13T19:23:10.977Z
tags: Greater Amberjack, Seriola dumerili, Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/greater-amberjack
---

# Greater Amberjack (*Seriola dumerili*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos (*Carangidae*)
- **Size:** up to 190 cm
- **Weight:** 80 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-385 m
- **Max age:** 15 yrs
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Open water around wrecks, drop-offs and offshore reefs
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- long torpedo body, amber-brown stripe from snout through the eye to the dorsal fin
- dark diagonal band across the eye, brighter when the fish is excited
- small tail base with a deeply forked tail
- cruises past in ones and twos, then turns and comes back for a second look
- length up to 190 cm

Nearly two meters (6 ft) of muscle with a dark bar through the eye, appearing beside a wreck at the edge of visibility and usually coming back for a second pass. The bar is a mood indicator: it flares dark when the fish is hunting or excited and fades when it is not.

It hunts by running things down in open water, taking small schooling fish, squid and anything driven up against a structure. Wrecks and offshore pinnacles gather them for exactly that reason - a wreck is a place where prey has nowhere to go.

One detail sets this species apart, and it is not flattering. Amberjacks carry a famously heavy parasite load: nematodes in the flesh, flukes on the gills and skin, and a monogenean that specializes in them. It is the reason fishermen call the big ones wormy, the reason the species is a headache in aquaculture, and, indirectly, one of the reasons those cruising fish keep visiting cleaning stations.

They spawn in open water in warm months and grow fast. Large ones from some regions have caused ciguatera poisoning; on the reef there is nothing here to be careful about beyond how quickly the fish loses interest.

## Also known as

- **English:** amberjack, greater amberjack, greater yellowtail
- **Arabic:** Jib
- **Hebrew:** סריול אטלנטי
- **French:** sériole, Amber couvailli, sériole couronnée, Poisson limon
- **Italian:** leccia, Ricciola, seriola di Dumeril
- **Spanish:** medregal coronado, Péz de Limón, pez de limón
- **Greek:** Μαγιάτικο
- **Turkish:** Sarikuyruk baligi, sari kuyruk
- **Portuguese:** Charuteiro-catarino, írio
- **Dutch:** grote geelstaart, barnsteenmakreel
- **Swedish:** Seriola, bårnstensfisk
- **Polish:** Seriola olbrzymia
- **Japanese:** カンパチ, Kampachi
- **FI:** Isopiikkimakrilli
- **MLT:** Accola (adult), Cervjola (juvenile), Serjola
- **NO:** Seriola
- **SL:** Gof
- **SQI:** Gofa
- **SR:** Orhan

## Scientific synonyms

- *Caranx dumerili* Risso, 1810
- *Micropteryx dumerili* (Risso, 1810)
- *Regificola parilis* Whitley, 1948
- *Seriola boscii* Valenciennes, 1833
- *Seriola dumerilii* (Risso, 1810)
- *Seriola gigas* Poey, 1860
- *Seriola purpurascens* Temminck & Schlegel, 1845
- *Seriola purpurescens* Temminck & Schlegel, 1845
- *Seriola rhombica* Smith, 1959
- *Seriola simplex* Ramsay & Ogilby, 1886
- *Seriola tapeinometapon* Bleeker, 1853
- *Seriola tapeinometopon* Bleeker, 1853
- *Trachurus aliciolus* Rafinesque, 1810
- *Trachurus fasciatus* Rafinesque, 1810

## Range

Djibouti, Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin, Mozambique, North Atlantic Ocean, South Africa

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/greater-amberjack)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*