Common mackerel
The Common mackerel, also known as Atlantic mackerel, is a significant species in the commercial fish industry, commonly caught for its meat, which is sold fresh or canned. These fish typically grow to about 16.5 inches (42 centimeters) in length and weigh around 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram). They are distinguished by their rounded, spindle-shaped bodies adorned with blue or green scales on their backs and pale bellies. Unique among mackerels, they feature 20 to 30 broad, blackish, wavy bars along their sides without markings on their bellies.
Common mackerels inhabit the Atlantic Ocean, ranging from southern Labrador to North Carolina and into the Baltic Sea, where they often swim in schools. As carnivores, they primarily feed on plankton, crustaceans, and smaller fish. Their mating season occurs in spring and summer, during which females can lay between 285,000 and 2 million eggs, though many are lost to natural predation. The eggs float on the water's surface and hatch within 4 to 7 days, depending on water temperature. While popular for consumption, caution is advised in certain tropical areas where the meat can spoil rapidly and cause food poisoning. With a lifespan of around 20 years, Common mackerels hold ecological and economic significance in marine environments.
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Common mackerel
Common mackerels, also called Atlantic mackerels, are important to the commercial fish industry. They are caught and canned or sold fresh. Common mackerels are very similar to chub mackerels and Pacific mackerels.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Osteichthyes
Order: Perciformes
Family: Scombridae
Genus: Scomber
Species: Scombrus
Common mackerels generally grow to be about 16 1/2 inches (42 centimeters) long and generally weigh about 2 1/5 pounds (1 kilogram). Their bodies are rounded and spindle-shaped with many fins. Common mackerels have blue or green scales along their backs and upper sides and pale scales on their bellies. Along the upper portions of their sides, common mackerels have between 20 and 30 broad, blackish, vertical, wavy bars. Unlike other mackerels, like their cousins the chub mackerels, common mackerels do not have markings on their bellies.
Common mackerels use their many fins to move through the water. Along their backs, common mackerels have two gray dorsal fins and several small notches between their second dorsal fins and their caudal, or tail, fins. These dorsal fins work together with the fish's anal fins to help them balance. Their caudal fins move from side to side, moving them through the water. Common mackerels also have pectoral and pelvic fins to paddle themselves in the currents.
Like other fish, common mackerels need oxygen to survive. Unlike humans, who have lungs and can process oxygen from the air, common mackerels must find the oxygen they need from the water. They take water into their mouths, keep the oxygen they need, and filter out the waste chemicals through their gills.
Common mackerels are found in the Atlantic Ocean from southern Labrador to North Carolina and along the North Atlantic into the Baltic Sea. They often swim in large groups called schools.
As carnivorous, or meat-eating, fish, common mackerels feed on various sea life, like plankton, crustaceans, mollusks, fish eggs, squid, and smaller fish.
The mating season for common mackerels occurs in the spring and summer along the eastern coastlines. Female common mackerels release their eggs into the water for the males to fertilize. This process of releasing and fertilizing eggs is known as spawning. In the western Atlantic, two groups spawn 10 to 30 miles off the coast. One in the Gulf of St. Lawrence from June to July. The other is in the Mid-Atlantic Bight in April and May. Each female may lay between 285,000 and 2 million eggs. Many of the eggs are eaten by predators or stop growing because of natural causes. Common mackerel eggs float along the surface of the water until they hatch. The time to hatch depends on the temperature, with eggs in warmer water hatching first, but on average, the eggs begin to hatch in 4 to 7 days. The fry, or young, hatch from their eggs and move into the water.
Common mackerels are important commercial fish. They are caught as a game and food fish and sold fresh or canned. In some tropical areas, common mackerel meat spoils quickly and can cause scombroid food poisoning if eaten. Sometimes, large schools of common mackerels are netted and brought in from the sea.
Common mackerels have a life span of about 20 years.
Bibliography
"Atlantic Mackerel." NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Department of Commerce, 4 Mar. 2024, www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/atlantic-mackerel. Accessed 1 Apr. 2024.