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Mackerel - AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education http://accessscience.com/content/mackerel/395500

Article by: Boschung, Herbert Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Publication year: 2014 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.395500 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.395500)

Content

Bullet mackerel ( rochei) Atlantic ( colias) ( maculatus) Frigate mackerel (Auxis thazard) Pacific chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) Bibliography (Scomber scombrus) (Scomberomorus cavalla) Additional Readings

A perciform in the family . The Scombridae comprise and . Mackerels have a fusiform and moderately compressed body, as well as certain other characteristics that adapt them for sustained high swimming speeds: the spinous is depressible in a groove in the back; the pectoral and pelvic fins are small and retractable in shallow depressions in the body; they possess minute cycloid scales (partly absent in some ; in this case, the scales surround the anterior part of the body and are referred to as the corselet); the eyes are even with the surface of the head; the mouthparts fit snuggly against the head; and the gill covers fit snuggly against the body. These features eliminate almost all irregularities that would cause resistance to the water. The slender caudal peduncle, supported on each side by two keels or a third median keel (depending on the species), and the lunate caudal fin provide a power forward thrust. Mackerels are also recognized by finlets (independent multibranched rays, each appearing as a small fin) behind the dorsal and anal fins. See also: Adaptation (biology) (/content/adaptation-biology/009800); Perciformes (/content/perciformes/497900); (/content/tuna/714500)

Mackerels are very important food and game that occur in all tropical and temperate seas. Most species are oceanodromous (migratory wholly in the sea) in habit, but some, especially the Spanish mackerel and its relatives, enter shallow bays. Most species swim at or near the surface, but some feed at considerable depths. See also: ecology (/content/fisheries-ecology/259000); Marine fisheries (/content/marine-fisheries/406100)

In North American waters, there are seven species of scombrids in three genera that bear the name mackerel.

Bullet mackerel (Auxis rochei)

This mackerel is also known as the . The body is robust, intermediate in depth compared with typical mackerels and tunas; the dorsal fins are well separated; the corselet extends posteriorly as a narrow band past the second dorsal fin; and there is a large central keel on each side of the caudal peduncle. The bullet mackerel is cosmopolitan in warm waters. In the western Atlantic, it ranges from Cape Cod south to the and the Caribbean Sea and farther south to Mar del Plata, Argentina. Its food consists largely of and other clupeids, , and . This is an important commercial fish that reaches a maximum length of 50 cm (20 in.).

Frigate mackerel (Auxis thazard)

1 of 4 9/11/2015 12:10 PM Mackerel - AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education http://accessscience.com/content/mackerel/395500 The body forms of the frigate mackerel and bullet mackerel are similar. However, the frigate mackerel differs in that the color bands above the are oblique and several dark spots are beneath the pectoral fins. In contrast, in the bullet mackerel, the bands are near vertical and the spots are absent. It is cosmopolitan in tropical waters. In the western Atlantic, it occurs from south to Venezuela. The maximum length is 65 cm (26 in.).

Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus)

The body of the Atlantic mackerel (see illustration) is about five times as long as deep; the mouth is large and equipped with small sharp teeth; the first dorsal fin is relatively small and well separated from the second; the anal fin is similar to the second dorsal, and each is followed by five finlets; the narrow caudal peduncle lacks the median keel as characteristic of Spanish mackerels and tunas; and the is absent. For the most part, the habitat of Atlantic mackerel is oceanic, but small specimens may enter estuaries in search of food. They usually occur in large schools and are opportunistic feeders that, lacking a swim bladder, find it easier to seek food at greater depth than most scombrids, that is, to depths of 185 m (600 ft). The range is the North Atlantic, including the Baltic, Mediterranean, and Black seas, to the east, and the western Atlantic from Labrador to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. This is a very important commercial fish that can reach a length of 56 cm (22 in.); most commonly, it is 30 cm (12 in.) in length. See also: Swim bladder (/content/swim-bladder/672500)

Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus). (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce)

Atlantic chub mackerel (Scomber colias)

The and Atlantic mackerel are similar, but differ in color pattern; the former has an air bladder. The narrow wavy dorsal bars break up into small dusky blotches below the lateral line; in the Atlantic mackerel, the bars are more distinct and end at the lateral line. The chub mackerel is a pelagic coastal species in warm and temperate waters in the eastern Atlantic and adjacent seas and in the western Atlantic from Nova Scotia and the Gulf of St. Lawrence south to the Gulf of Mexico, the Bahamas, and Venezuela. Its length can reach 50 cm (20 in.), but more commonly is 30 cm (12 in.).

Pacific chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus)

This mackerel and the Atlantic chub mackerel (Scomber colias) were considered subspecies until molecular data showed conclusively that each is a full species. It is a coastal pelagic species and, to a lesser extent, epipelagic and mesopelagic over continental slopes to a depth of 300 m (985 ft) in the Indo-Pacific and eastern Pacific; it is apparently absent from Indonesian and Australian waters. The maximum length is 64 cm (25 in.).

King mackerel (Scomberomorus cavalla)

The body is six or more times as long as deep; there is very little space between the two dorsal fins; and the second dorsal and anal fins are followed by 7–10 finlets. Sport fishers are known to confuse Spanish mackerel with small king mackerel, thinking that the former is a trophy catch. In the king mackerel, the lateral line dips abruptly under the second dorsal; in contrast, in the Spanish mackerel, the lateral line curves down gradually. Also, the king mackerel has 12–17 (usually 15)

2 of 4 9/11/2015 12:10 PM Mackerel - AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education http://accessscience.com/content/mackerel/395500 spines in the first dorsal fin versus 17–19 in the Spanish mackerel, and the spinous dorsal is clear, lacking black pigment as in Spanish mackerel. Its range is warm waters of the western Atlantic from North Carolina south to Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico, and occasionally north to Massachusetts and rarely the . It feeds on fishes, primarily clupeids, and reaches 1.7 m (67 in.) in length and 45 kg (100 lb) in weight.

Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus)

The Spanish mackerel is 4.5 to 5 times as long as deep; otherwise, it is similar to the king mackerel, except for the differences noted above. The sides are marked with many brassy or golden spots above and below the lateral line; this applies to juveniles as well as adults. Juvenile king mackerels have similar spotting. Spanish mackerel is an epipelagic western Atlantic coastal species ranging primarily from Chesapeake Bay to south Florida and throughout the Gulf of Mexico; however, they rarely stray northward to Cape Cod and are absent from the Bahamas and Antilles, except Cuba and Haiti. Food is primarily small schooling clupeids, including anchovies, and to a lesser extent . The maximum size is 83 cm (33 in.) in length and 5 kg (11 lb) in weight.

Herbert Boschung

Bibliography

B. B. Collette, Mackerels: Family Scombridae, in B. B. Collette and G. K. MacPhee (eds.), Bigelow and Schroeder's Fishes of the Gulf of Maine, 3d ed., Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 2002

B. B. Collette, Mackerels, molecules, and morphology, pp. 149–164, in B. Séret and J.-Y. Sire (eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference, Society of French Ichthyologists, Paris, 1999

B. B. Collette and C. R. Aadland, Revision of the frigate tunas (Scombridae, Auxis), with descriptions of two new subspecies from the eastern Pacific, Fish. Bull., 94:423–441, 1996

B. B. Collette and C. E. Nauen, FAO species catalogue, vol 2: Scombrids of the world: An annotated and illustrated catalogue of tunas, mackerels, , and related species known to date, FAO Fish. Synop., 125(2):1–37, 1983

C. R. Robins and G. C. Ray, A Field Guide to Atlantic Coast Fishes of North America, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1986

Additional Readings

G. S. Helfman et al., The Diversity of Fishes: Biology, Evolution, and Ecology, 2d ed., Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, West Sussex, UK, 2009

T. Jansen et al., Spatial segregation within the spawning migration of north eastern Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus) as indicated by juvenile growth patterns, PLoS One, 8(2):e58114, 2013 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058114 (http://dx.doi.org /10.1371/journal.pone.0058114)

E. O. Murdy and J. A. Musick, Field Guide to Fishes of the Chesapeake Bay, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 2013

Animal Diversity Web: Family Scombridae (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information /Scombridae.html)

FishBase: Family Scombridae (http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/FamilySummary.cfm?ID=416)

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