The Okhotsk Atka mackerel (''Pleurogrammus azonus''), also known as the Arabesque greenling, 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. ...

-like species in the family

Hexagrammidae Hexagrammidae, the greenlings, is a Family (biology), family of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the suborder Cottoidei in the Order (biology), order Perciformes. These fishes are found in the North Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy Hexagrammidae wa ...

. It is commonly known as ''hokke'' (法華) in Japan and ''imyeonsu'' in Korean. The primary population of the fish is found off the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk; Historically also known as , or as ; ) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, Japan's island of Hokkaido on the sou ...

History

According to legend, it was discovered by the monk

Nichiji Nichiji (日持; February 10, 1250 – after 1304), also known as Kaikō, was a Buddhist disciple of Nichiren who traveled to Hokkaido, Siberia, and China. Nichiji was born in Suruga Province, the second child of a large and powerful family. ...

Distribution and habitat

The Okhotsk Atka mackerel is found in the northwest Pacific Ocean occurring in Primorskii Krai in Russia, the

east to the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the ...

south to

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

and Tsushima in Japan and the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea, also known as the North Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. Names It is one of four ...

. It is an

oceanodromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousa ...

demersal fish Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of seas or lakes (the demersal zone).Walrond Carl . "Coastal fish - Fish of the open sea floor"Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 2 March 2009 They oc ...

found at depths from the surface to .

Taxonomy

The Okhotsk atka mackerel was first formally described in 1913 by the American ichthyologists

David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Universi ...

and Charles William Metz with its type locality given as

Nampo Nampo (North Korean official spelling: Nampho; ), also spelled Namp'o, is a major city in North Korea which is the country's List of cities in North Korea, fourth-largest by population. The city is an important seaport in the country as it lies ...

in North Korea. This species is occasionally considered synonymous with the

Atka mackerel The Atka mackerel (''Pleurogrammus monopterygius'') is a mackerel in the family Hexagrammidae. Atka mackerel are common in the northern Pacific Ocean, and are one of only two members of the genus ''Pleurogrammus'' – the other being the Arabes ...

, ''P. monopterygius'' (Nelson 1994). However, it is probably a separate species.* Crow, Karen D., Ziyusei Kanamoto, and Giacomo Bernardi.
Molecular phylogeny of the hexagrammid fishes using a multi-locus approach
. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 32 (2004) 986–997 This fish was also documented as ''Stellistius katsukii'' but the older name ''Pleurogrammus azonus'' takes precedence.

Biology

The juvenile Okhotsk atka mackerel gather in large schools close the surface but the adults are benthic. The females lay egg masses within crevices or in gravel along rocky coasts at depths of less than , these are guarded by the males.

Fisheries

The Okhotsk atka mackerel is an important fish, and approximately 100,000 tons of the species were harvested each year throughout the late 20th century.''Pleurogrammus azonus'' (Jordan & Metz, 1913)
FAO, Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved 12 March 2012.

As food

Known in

Japanese cuisine Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese language, Japanese: ) is based on rice with m ...

as '' hokke'' and in

Korean cuisine Korean cuisine is the set of foods and culinary styles which are associated with Korean culture. This cuisine has evolved through centuries of social and political change. Originating from ancient Prehistoric Korea, agricultural and nomad ...

as imyeonsu ( 임연수), the fish can be fresh, dried, or frozen, and can be served raw, boiled, grilled or fried. File:Grilled Okhotsk Atka Mackerel.jpg,

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

grilled Okhotsk atka mackerel (''hokke'') File:Hakodate (26637899709).jpg File:烤鰊魚, 烤花魚, 帆立貝, 花魚丼, 民宿青塚食堂, 小樽, 北海道, 日本, Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan, おたるし, ほっかいどう, にっぽん, にほん (47026018784).jpg File:Grilled Fish HokkeChanChanYaki.jpg

Notes

References

* * Nelson, J.S., 1994.

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...

. Wiley, New York. * Shinohara, G. and K. Amaoka, 1994. Stellistius katsukii Jordan & Tanaka, 1927, a junior synonym of Pleurogrammus azonus Jordan & Metz, 1913 (Scorpaeniformes: Hexagrammidae). Jap. J. Ichthyol. 40(4):487-490. {{DEFAULTSORT:mackerel, atka, Okhotsk

Okhotsk atka mackerel The Okhotsk Atka mackerel (''Pleurogrammus azonus''), also known as the Arabesque greenling, is a mackerel-like species in the family Hexagrammidae. It is commonly known as ''hokke'' (法華) in Japan and ''imyeonsu'' in Korean. The primary popul ...

Sea of Okhotsk

Taxa named by David Starr Jordan