The Monterrey Spanish mackerel (''Scomberomorus concolor'') is a species of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in the family

Scombridae The mackerel, tuna, and bonito family, Scombridae, includes many of the most important and familiar food fishes. The family consists of 51 species in 15 genera and two subfamilies. All species are in the subfamily Scombrinae, except the butterfly ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

where it is found in the northern part of the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...

. It is the subject of a fishery, its population is declining and the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has rated it as being a "

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

Description

The Monterrey Spanish mackerel is a less deep-bodied fish than the

bonito Bonitos are a tribe of medium-sized, ray-finned predatory fish in the family Scombridae – a family it shares with the mackerel, tuna, and Spanish mackerel tribes, and also the butterfly kingfish. Also called the tribe Sardini, it consists of ...

with which it is sometimes confused. The back is steely blue and the flanks silver. The pectoral fins are small and are located close to the gill covers. The dorsal fin has 15 to 18 spines and 16 to 20 soft rays while the anal fin has 19 to 23 soft rays. The lateral line curves downwards towards to the tail. Males are unspotted but females have two series of brown spots. Its

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

is and its maximum weight is .

Distribution

Historically the Monterrey Spanish mackerel was probably present in the eastern Pacific and Gulf of California as one continuous population. More recently there have been two widely separated populations, one in the Gulf of California and the other in the East Pacific, along the coasts of California as far south as the Mexican border. The open sea population migrated northwards to

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by a ...

in September and then moved southwards in November to spend the winter around Catalina Island and in the

Santa Barbara Channel The Santa Barbara Channel is a portion of the Southern California Bight and separates the mainland of California from the northern Channel Islands. It is generally south of the city of Santa Barbara, and west of the Oxnard Plain in Ventura Count ...

. However, the range of this fish has contracted, the open sea population has vanished, and the fish is now restricted to a single population in the northern part of the Gulf of California.

Status

The Monterrey Spanish mackerel is caught alongside the

Pacific sierra The Pacific sierra (''Scomberomorus sierra'') also known as the Mexican sierra, is a ray-finned bony fish in the family Scombridae, better known as the mackerel family. More specifically, this fish is a member of the tribe Scomberomorini, the ...

(''Scomberomorus sierra'') by the use of gillnets, and the two fish are jointly marketed as "sierra". This makes it difficult to establish the conservation status of the Monterrey Spanish mackerel, however it is estimated that the total population has been declining markedly because of over-exploitation, with a further 40% reduction expected in the next ten years. With no sign in a reduction in fishery activity, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has rated this fish as being a "

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q311051 Scomberomorus Fish of the Gulf of California Endemic fish of Mexico Taxa named by William Neale Lockington Fish described in 1879 Scombridae Taxonomy articles created by Polbot