Margate

Haemulon album, the white margate, grey grunt, grunt, Margaret fish, Margaret grunt, margate, margate fish, ronco blanco, viuda, white grunt, white pogret, or yellow grunt is a species of ray-finned fish, a large grunt belonging to the family Haemulidae. It is native to the western Atlantic Ocean.

Habitat

H. album is found at depths between 2 and 60 m (6 ft 7 in and 196 ft 10 in) in clear, tropical waters around coral reefs, rocky areas, shipwrecks, and beds of sea grass. The juveniles prefer to be close to sea grass beds.

They are typically encountered as pairs or large schools. They are nocturnal feeders, their diet consisting mainly of benthic invertebrates such as peanut worms and heart urchins, for which it has been recorded, nosing into the substrate in search. They also commonly feed on bivalves, crustaceans, and small fishes. The females are able to spawn several times in a season, the spawning seasons being the Spring and Autumn off Jamaica. Spawning aggregations have been reported off Belize.

Distribution

H. album is found in the western Atlantic Ocean. The northern limit of its range is in Bermuda and eastern Florida, through the Bahamas, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. It is found along the coast of Central America from Quintana Roo to islands and cays off Nicaragua. This species has also been confirmed in the waters around the Brazilian oceanic islands of Fernando de Noronha and Atol das Rocas, although it is absent from the mainland Brazilian coast.