Marine - Species

The information that follows is intended to give you a window into the lives and abundance of a selection of South Carolina's marine species. It also highlights the work your Department of Natural Resources undertakes to ensure that future generations will continue to enjoy access to healthy and sustainable fisheries. Data sets presented are from projects of your Department of Natural Resources and therefore reflect conditions in South Carolina. Many species travel beyond our borders and are managed at the regional scale by entities such as the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Therefore, the abundance of a particular species in South Carolina may or may not be indicative of conditions across its entire range or the management actions necessary to ensure access to a healthy, sustainable stock. We encourage you to visit https://safmc.net/ and http://www.asmfc.org/ to learn more about regional management and condition of fisheries.

An online survey and meetings with interested groups guided selection of species and attributes for this product. View the results of that survey in the Adobe PDF file format. Adobe® Reader® is required to open these files and is available as a free download from the Adobe® Web site. We thank you for your assistance in creating this product and hope you find it useful and informative.

It is our goal to update these data annually and add information for new species as resources allow.

Species Image
Atlantic croaker Atlantic Croaker
Atlantic spadefish Atlantic Spadefish
Black drum Black drum
Black seabass Black Seabass
Blue crab Blue crab
Cobia Cobia
Eastern oyster Eastern Oyster
Jack crevalle Jack crevalle
King mackerel King Mackerel
Red drum Red drum
Sheepshead Sheepshead
Southern flounder Southern flounder
Southern kingfish Southern Kingfish
Spanish mackerel Spanish mackerel
Spot Spot
Spotted seatrout Spotted Seatrout
Summer flounder Summer Flounder
Tarpon Tarpon
Weakfish Weakfish
White shrimp White Shrimp - photography by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration