The narrow-barred Spanish mackerel (''Scomberomorus commerson'') is a

mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...

of 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 but ...

found in a wide-ranging area in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, but as far west as the east coast of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and from the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and along the northern coastal areas of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

, and as far east as the

South West Pacific Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

Ocean.

Description

They are vivid blue to dark grey in colour along their backs and flanks and fade to a silvery blue-grey on the belly. Spanish mackerel have scores of narrow, vertical lines down their sides. Spanish mackerel grow to about 200 cm and up to 70 kg. They are the largest of all Australian mackerels.

Distribution and habitat

''Scomberomorus commerson'' is found in a wide area centering in Southeast Asia, but as far west as the east coast of Africa and from the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

and along the northern coastal areas of the Indian Ocean, and as far east as

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

in the

ocean. The species is common down both sides of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

as far south as

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

on the west coast and

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

on the east coast. It is also found as far north as

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and even

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Recorded first in 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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

in 1935 off

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, it is now very common in the eastern Levant where it has become an important target species for local fisheries.Atlas of Exotic Fishes in the Mediterranean Sea (''Scomberomorus commerson''). 2nd Edition. 2021. 366p. CIESM Publishers, Paris, Monaco.https://ciesm.org/atlas/fishes_2nd_edition/Scomberomorus_commerson.pdf

Life cycle

Spanish mackerel spawn in oceanic conditions on reef edges. Eggs have a large oil droplet that aids in buoyancy and keeps them at the top of the water column which is warmer, well oxygenated, and has an abundant planktonic food supply for the larvae once they are hatched. When in the larval stage, Spanish mackerel are believed to stay in their own species-specific groups and are not normally found with other species of the same genus, such as ''S. semifasciatus'' and ''S. queenslandicus''. This is not always the case with adult mackerel, where occasional mixing of different species within the same genus can occur. Spawning is seasonal, but it is protracted in the warmer waters of the tropics. Many of the fisheries that target this species are based on prespawning feeding aggregations. A significant proportion of the female fish caught in

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

waters between July and December have either recently spawned or are close to spawning. In general, spawning times for Spanish mackerel tend to be associated with higher water temperatures that promote optimal food availability for the rapid growth and development of the larvae. As the young larvae grow, they move from the offshore spawning grounds to inshore and estuarine habitats, where they are frequently found in the juvenile phase of their growth cycle. In the inshore environments, they feed mostly on the larvae and juveniles of small fish and crustaceans until they become large enough to eat small fish and squid. Australian studies of this species suggest females are larger than males. Female Spanish mackerel mature at about two years of age or around 80 cm in length.

Feeding habits

Spanish mackerel are voracious, opportunistic

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...

s. As with other members of the genus, food consists mainly of small fishes with lesser quantities of

shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...

and

squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

Fisheries, fishing gear and methods

Spanish mackerel are highly valued fish throughout their range in the Indo-West Pacific. Recreational anglers catch them from boats while

trolling In slang, a troll is a person who posts deliberately offensive or provocative messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a internet forum, forum, a chat room, an Multiplayer video game, online video game) or who performs similar be ...

or drifting and from boats, piers, jetties, and beaches by casting spoons and jigs, and live-bait

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

. Commercial methods are primarily run-around

gillnetting Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is ...

, and rarely, by trolling lures similar to those used by recreational anglers.

Australia

As of July 2023, the Government of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, cut the commercial catch limit from to , a reduction to 27.5% of the earlier limit. The split was: 60% commercial; 40% recreational (1/person) but also includes charter boat fishing; Indigenous 2 tonnes/year limit across all allocations. This is intended to revitalise of the biomass over time.East coast Spanish mackerel fishery harvest strategy 2023–2028: This harvest strategy has been developed in line with the Queensland harvest strategy policy to manage harvest in the Queensland east coast Spanish mackerel fishery (ECSMF).

Government of Queensland The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the state Legislative Assembly, with the governo ...

, October 2022, accessed 2023-07-25

Taiwan

Penghu The Penghu ( , Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī, POJ: ''Phîⁿ-ô͘'' or ''Phêⁿ-ô͘'' ) or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait, about west of the main island of Taiwan across the Penghu Ch ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

the narrow-barred Spanish mackerel is highly valued and referred to as "white gold." In 2022 an exceptional 34 kilo fish was sold for more than $3,000. In Tainan it is used to make the dish ''tutuo yugeng'' (土魠魚羹, Spanish Mackerel thick soup).

Aquaculture

In 2023 the Taiwanese Fisheries Research Institute succeeded in artificially breeding narrow-barred Spanish mackerel.

Parasites

As with most fish, the narrow-barred Spanish mackerel is infected by a variety of

parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted str ...

s. Spectacular parasites are the cysts of the larvae of the

trypanorhynch ''Trypanorhyncha'' is an Order (biology), order of cestoda, cestodes, a type of flatworm. Some species infect gamefish, such as sciaenids, during the parasitic worm's plerocercoid stage, and are commonly called spaghetti worm because of their a ...

cestode ''Callitetrarhynchus gracilis'', often found in great numbers in the body cavity. Seer Fish Fry

Common names

*Pakistan: ''Surmei'' سرمٸ *South Africa: king mackerel, couta, cuda *Malaysia: ''tenggiri'' *Singapore: ''Batang'' (巴当鱼) *Australia: narrow-bar, narrow-barred mackerel, snook, Spaniard, Spanish mackerel *USA: barred mackerel, narrow-barred mackerel, striped seer *Arabic: In

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, it is called "abu sinn ابو سن" or"ghazal غزال", in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

's Mediterranean and the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

it is "Dirak ديرك", while in

Arab states of the Persian Gulf The Arab states of the Persian Gulf, also known as the Gulf Arab states (), refers to a group of Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf. There are seven member states of the Arab League in the region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi ...

, it is ''kanaad, kanad'' or ''kana'd'' كنعد pronounced ‘Chanaad’, according to the local dialect inflection, despite the sound ‘ch’ not existing in the Arabic language. *India: ''konem'' in Telugu, ''vanjaram'' in Tamil, ''anjal'' in Tulu, ''Shermai '' in Dhakhani Urdu,''Surmai'' In Marathi , "Neymeen(നെയ്മീൻ)" "Aykoora(അയക്കൂറ)" in Malayalam *Iran: ''shir mahi'' شیرماهی *Israel: ''Palamida'' (פלמידה), ''Squmbren zariz'' (סקומברן זריז, meaning quick Spanish mackerel) *Philippines: ''tanigue'' *Indonesia: ''ikan tenggiri'' *Sri Lanka: ''Thora'' in Sinhalese, ''vanjaram'' in Tamil *Somalia: Yuumbi *Fiji: ''walu'' *Thailand: ''plā xinthrī'' (ปลาอินทรี) *Türkiye: ceylan palamutu, ceylan balığı * Libyan: yamaneyah يمنيه. * Taiwan: 土魠魚, "thô͘-thoh-hî", "tǔtuōyú" * Dutch: koningsvis * South China: majia (馬加魚)

References

External links

Fisheries Western Australia - Spanish Mackerel
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1521298 Fish of Saudi Arabia Scomberomorus Fish of the Indian Ocean Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish described in 1800 Taxa named by Bernard Germain de Lacépède