Chub mackerel

Chub mackerel
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Scombridae
Genus:	Scomber
Species:	S. japonicus
Binomial name
Scomber japonicus Houttuyn, 1782

The chub mackerel, Scomber japonicus, also known as the Pacific mackerel or blue mackerel and sometimes referred to as a "hardhead" or "bullseye", closely resembles the Atlantic chub mackerel.

Identification

Most important of the differences, anatomically, is the fact that the hardhead has a well-developed swim bladder attached with the esophagus, which the "true mackerels" in the Scomber genus lack. But it is not necessary to open the fish to identify it for there is a characteristic color difference between them, the Atlantic being silvery-sided below the mid line, whereas the lower part of the sides of the hardhead (otherwise colored somewhat like the Atlantic) are mottled with small dusky blotches, and the chub has a larger eye than the Atlantic. Less obvious differences are that the dorsal fins are closer together in the chub and that there are only 9 or 10 spines in its first dorsal fin instead of 11 or more, which is the usual count in the Atlantic mackerel. In most species the mackerel is known to travel in large schools.

Habits

Chub mackerel school like Atlantic mackerel, and their feeding habits are much the same, eating the same species of pelagic crustaceans and Sagittae that the mackerel had taken at the same time and place, while specimens taken at Woods Hole had dieted chiefly on copepods, to a less extent on amphipods, salps, appendicularians, and young herring. They follow thrown bait as readily and bite quite as greedily as Atlantic mackerel do. Their breeding habits have not been studied.

Distribution

It is widespred in the Indo-Pacific. Absent from the Indian Ocean except for South Africa from KwaZulu-Natal to Western Cape. Replaced by the closly related Atlantic chub mackerel in the Atlantic.

Size

This is a smaller fish than its better known relative, growing to a length of about 8 to 14 inches.

References

• "Scomber japonicus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=172412. Retrieved 30 January 2006. 
• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2011). "Scomber japonicus" in FishBase. 10 2011 version.