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Scomber australasicus  Cuvier, 1832

Blue mackerel
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Scomber australasicus
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Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes (gen., sp.) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) > Perciformes (Perch-likes) > Scombridae (Mackerels, tunas, bonitos) > Scombrinae
Etymology: Scomber: Greek, skombros = tunny or mackerel, 1623 (Ref. 45335).   More on author: Cuvier.

Environment / Climate / Range Ecology

Marine; pelagic-neritic; oceanodromous (Ref. 51243); depth range 87 - 200 m (Ref. 9563).   Subtropical, preferred 24°C (Ref. 107945); 43°N - 50°S, 32°E - 110°W (Ref. 168)

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea, Persian Gulf; from Japan, south to Australia and New Zealand. Eastern Pacific: Hawaii and off Mexico (Socorro Island).

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 44.0 cm FL male/unsexed; (Ref. 40637); common length : 30.0 cm FL male/unsexed; (Ref. 168); max. published weight: 1.4 kg (Ref. 40637)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 10 - 13; Dorsal soft rays (total): 12; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 12; Vertebrae: 31. No well developed corselet but body covered with rather small scales. Palatine narrow. Anal fin origin clearly more posterior than that of second dorsal fin. Anal fin spine independent from anal fin. Swim bladder present. Snout pointed. Interpelvic process small and single. Back with narrow oblique lines which zigzag and undulate; the belly is pearly white and marked with thin, wavy broken lines.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Occurs in coastal waters (Ref. 9340) and also in oceanic waters (Ref. 9563). Minimum depth reported at 87 m (Ref. 58489); fishing depths to 265 m (cited in Ref. 58302). Schooling by size which may include jack mackerels and Pacific sardines. They are plankton feeders filtering copepods and other crustaceans, but adults also feed on small fish and squids. Also caught with encircling nets (Ref. 9340). Marketed fresh, dried-salted, smoked, canned and frozen (Ref. 9987).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator : Collette, Bruce B. | Collaborators

Collette, B.B. and C.E. Nauen, 1983. FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 2. Scombrids of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of tunas, mackerels, bonitos and related species known to date. Rome: FAO. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(2):137 p. (Ref. 168)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 115185)

CITES (Ref. 94142)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless




Human uses

Fisheries: commercial; gamefish: yes; bait: usually
FAO(fisheries: production; publication : search) | FisheriesWiki | Sea Around Us

More information

Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
Stocks
Ecology
Diet
Food items
Food consumption
Ration
Common names
Synonyms
Metabolism
Predators
Ecotoxicology
Reproduction
Maturity
Spawning
Fecundity
Eggs
Egg development
Age/Size
Growth
Length-weight
Length-length
Length-frequencies
Morphometrics
Morphology
Larvae
Larval dynamics
Recruitment
Abundance
References
Aquaculture
Aquaculture profile
Strains
Genetics
Allele frequencies
Heritability
Diseases
Processing
Mass conversion
Collaborators
Pictures
Stamps, Coins
Sounds
Ciguatera
Speed
Swim. type
Gill area
Otoliths
Brains
Vision

Tools

Special reports

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Internet sources

BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes (gen., sp.) | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | Faunafri | Fishes of Iran | Fishtrace | GenBank(genome, nucleotide) | GloBI | GOBASE | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | National databases | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Scirus | SeaLifeBase | Tree of Life | Wikipedia(Go, Search) | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoobank | Zoological Record

Estimates of some properties based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82805):  PD50 = 0.5625   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00871 (0.00756 - 0.01004), b=3.06 (3.02 - 3.10), in cm Total Length, based on LWR estimates for this species (Ref. 93245).
Trophic Level (Ref. 69278):  4.2   ±0.5 se; Based on diet studies.
Resilience (Ref. 69278):  Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (K=0.28).
Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Moderate vulnerability (43 of 100) .
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Very high.