Atlantic chub mackerel (''Scomber colias''), also known as Tinker mackerel, is a

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or w ...

schooling species of mackerel found in the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

Ocean, the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, and the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

. It was originally thought to be a subspecies of the

chub mackerel The chub mackerel, Pacific mackerel, or Pacific chub mackerel (''Scomber japonicus'') is a species of fish in the tuna and mackerel family, Scombridae. This species of mackerel closely resembles the Atlantic chub mackerel. Characteristics The chu ...

'' Scomber japonicus colias''.

Description

The Atlantic chub mackerel is a long, streamlined fish with a deeply forked tail, is all covered with very small

fish scale A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as ...

. The first dorsal fin has 9 or 10 spines and is separated from the second dorsal fin by a space at least as long as its base. The origin of the anal fin is directly below or just behind the origin of the second dorsal fin. This fish is silvery in colour, the upper surface has oblique zigzagging lines while the belly is paler and spotted or marked with wavy lines.

Ecology

Atlantic chub mackerel and other members of the genus

Auxis ''Auxis'' is a genus of ocean-dwelling ray-finned bony fish in the family Scombridae, and tribe Thunnini, also known as the tunas. ''Auxis'', commonly and collectively called the frigate tunas, is one of five genera of tunas which comprise th ...

are important

forage species.

Fisheries

This fish is particularly abundant in the eastern Mediterranean. Two variants are distinguished: in the late summer and autumn, the fish is fat and

roe Roe ( ) or hard roe is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses, of fish and certain marine animals such as shrimp, scallop, sea urchins and squid. As a seafood, roe is used both as a cooked in ...

-filled, whereas in the late winter and spring it is very lean, almost emaciated. The

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

names for the two forms are ''koliós'' and ''tsíros'', respectively. They are usually roasted, although the former form is often packed in salt for later consumption. The fish releases its own oil into the salt packing and acquires a very long shelf life. In the islands of the Aegean, it is a particularly popular delicacy, under the name ''goúna'': fresh-caught mackerel is split open at the belly, eviscerated, and left to dry flesh-side up in the sun for one day. The same evening it is very briefly seared over a fire and then served with lemon juice. Along the eastern seaboard of North America Atlantic chub mackerel were not the target of directed commercial fisheries until 2013 when commercial trawlers began targeting them because of a lack of squid. Landings went from almost zero to 5m pounds within the year.

Status

This fish has a wide range and is abundant over parts of that range. Although it is heavily fished in places, the population seems relatively stable and the IUCN has listed this species as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

Links

''Scomber colias'' at FishBase

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1934719 Atlantic chub mackerel Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of the Black Sea Atlantic chub mackerel Atlantic chub mackerel