Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Fisheries and for a world without hunger Aquaculture Department Species Fact Sheets Pleurogrammus azonus (Jordan & Metz, 1913) Pleurogrammus azonus: (click for more) Synonyms Stellistius katsukii Jordan & Tanaka, 1927: 389. FAO Names En - Okhotsk atka mackerel, Fr - Terpuga arabesque de Okhotsk, Sp - Lorcha de Okhotsk. 3Alpha Code: ATK Taxonomic Code: 1780701402 Diagnostic Features Body fairly slender, slightly compressed. Caudal peduncle slender. Head rather steep and compressed, without spine or bony ridge. Head and body covered with small ctenoid scales except for snout and branchiostegal membranes. Eye rather small; interorbital space broad and conex; a cirrus on posterodorsal margin of orbit, 2 small cirri on occipital region. Snout pointed; jaws subequal ; teeth on jaws and vomer; none on palatine. Lateral lines 5 on body; 10 to 11 transverse scales between 3rd and 5th. 5-8 + 14-17 gillrakers in lower first arch. One dorsal fin with a long base, without a notch between spinous (21-23) and soft ray portions (28-29). Anal fin with 27-32 soft rays. Caudal fin deeply forked. Vertebrae 27+34. Body coloration is variable; with growth, body color changes to grey and they move to the bottom; great schools of greenish blue juveniles (7 to 8 cm) are found near the surface; generally body and head uniformly dark brown, paler ventrally; margin of each fin blackish. Geographical Distribution FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Launch the Aquatic Species Distribution map viewer Western North Pacific off northern Japan to the Yellow sea, Primorskii Krai, the Okhotsk Sea and the Kuril Islands. Habitat and Biology Spawning takes place from September to February. Female deposits eggs mass in crevices or gravel in rocky coast less than 20 m depth. Male guards the eggs. Size They grow to about 21 cm at one year of age, and attain 61 cm and over. Interest to Fisheries The total catch reported for this species to FAO for 1999 was 265 205 t. The countries with the largest catches were Japan (169 481 t) and USA (51 436 t). Utilized fresh dried/salted and frozen; can be pan-fried and broiled. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Global Capture Production for species (tonnes) Source: FAO FishStat 400k 300k 200k 100k 0k 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Pleurogrammus azonus Global Aquaculture Production for species (tonnes) Source: FAO FishStat 20 10 0 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Pleurogrammus azonus Local Names English : Atka mackerel . French : Terpuga , Terpuga arabesque . Japanese : Hokke . Bibliography Amaoka, H. - 1984 Hexagrammidae. In: H. Masuda; K. Amaoka; C. Araga; T. Uyeno; T. Yoshino (eds.). The Fishes of the Japanese Archipelago. Tokai. Univ. Press. 320-321. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2003. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org Yabe, M. - 1983 Hexagrammidae. In: K. Amaoka; K. Nakaya; H. raya; T. Yasui (eds.) Fishes from the North- eastern Sea of Japan and the Okhotsk Sea off Hokkaido. Japan Fisheries Resource Conservation Association. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department 280, 337. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department.