The Atka mackerel (''Pleurogrammus monopterygius'') 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. ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

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 ...

. Atka mackerel are common in the northern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, and are one of only two members of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Pleurogrammus ''Pleurogrammus'' is a genus of ray-finned fishes belonging to the Family (biology), family Hexagrammidae, the greenlings, known as Atka mackerels. These fishes are found in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Pleurogrammus'' was first pr ...

'' – the other being the Arabesque greenling (''Pleurogrammus azonus''). The Atka mackerel was named for Atka Island (''Atx̂ax̂'' in

Aleut Aleuts ( ; (west) or (east) ) are the Indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleuts and the islands are politically divided between the US state of Alaska ...

), the largest island of the Andreanof islands, a branch of the

Aleutians The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain of 14 main, larger volcanic island ...

Taxonomy

The Atka mackerel was originally described under the genus ''Labrax'', but has since been moved to ''Pleurogrammus''. Both names are attributed to

Peter Simon Pallas Peter Simon Pallas Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (22 September 1741 – 8 September 1811) was a Prussia, Prussian zoologist, botanist, Ethnography, ethnographer, Exploration, explorer, Geography, geographer, Geology, geologist, Natura ...

, who published his description of the fish in 1810, roughly a year before his death.*Mearns, Barbara and Richard – ''Biographies for Birdwatchers'' Atka mackerel were once considered to be synonymous with Arabesque greenlings.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. The combined species would have been called the

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 ...

, a name now used only for the greenling. The two fishes are, in reality, two distinct 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

Description

Able to live up to 14 years,Fadeev, N.S. 2005 Guide to biology and fisheries of fishes of the North Pacific Ocean. Vladivostok, TINRO-Center. 366 p. the largest Atka mackerel recorded was long; the heaviest recorded weight was .Zolotov, O.G. 2003 Atka mackerel. P. 44–46 in Condition of biological resources of the North-West Pacific. Siniakov, S.A., N.I. Naumenko, Yu.P. Diakov, O.G. Zolotov, and B.B. Vronsky (Eds.). Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, KamchatNIRO. Adults have five vertical, blackish bands on their bodies,Masuda, H., K. Amaoka, C. Araga, T. Uyeno and T. Yoshino 1984 The fishes of the Japanese Archipelago. Vol. 1. Tokai University Press, Tokyo, Japan. 437 p. (text) which are normally yellowish. Atka mackerel can be distinguished from other, similar species by the number of

spine Spine or spinal may refer to: Science Biology * Spinal column, also known as the backbone * Dendritic spine, a small membranous protrusion from a neuron's dendrite * Thorns, spines, and prickles, needle-like structures in plants * Spine (zoology), ...

s and rays that they have on their

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. F ...

s. They have 21 spines, and anywhere from 25–29 rays on their

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

s, and only one spine (but 24–26 rays) on their

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

Distribution and habitat

Found exclusively in the northern Pacific, Atka mackerel are known from the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

and the waters off

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

, as well as the southern

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 ...

, and from

Stalemate Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior position ...

and Bowers Bank in the Aleutian chain to Icy bay, Alaska.Solomatov, S.F., D.V. Antonenko, A.A. Balanov and P.V. Kalchugin, 2009. New data on the occurrence of Atka Mackerel Pleurogrammus monopterygius (Hexagrammidae) in the Sea of Japan. Journal of Ichthyology 49(1):66-72. They can also be rarely seen as far south as

Redondo Beach, California Redondo Beach (Spanish for ) is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent Beach Cities, beach c ...

. Atka mackerel can generally be found from the

intertidal zone The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various ...

to depths up to .Allen, M.J. and G.B. Smith 1988 Atlas and zoogeography of common fishes in the Bering Sea and northeastern Pacific. NOAA Tech. Rep. NMFS 66, 151 p.

Migration and breeding

They migrate from shelves to coastal waters to spawn which occurs (in the Aleutians) from July to September. Their eggs adhere to crevices in the rocks, and incubate for 40–45 days. Males guard the clutches of eggs until they hatch.Armstrong, R.H., 1996. Alaska's fish. A guide to selected species. Alaska Northwest Books. 94 p.

Ecology

The fish feed on

copepods Copepods (; meaning 'oar-feet') are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthic (living on the sediments), several species have ...

and euphausiids. They are, in turn, preyed upon by several species such as bony fishes, (

coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family (biology), family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon (or "silvers") and is often ...

sablefish The sablefish (''Anoplopoma fimbria'') is one of two members of the fish family Anoplopomatidae and the only species in the genus ''Anoplopoma''. In English, common names for it include sable (US), butterfish (US), black cod (US, UK, Canada), ...

, '' Polypera simushirae'',

Pacific cod The Pacific cod (''Gadus macrocephalus)'' is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Gadidae. It is a bottom-dwelling fish found in the northern Pacific Ocean, mainly on the continental shelf and upper slopes, to depths of about . It can grow ...

, Pacific halibut, and Arrowtooth flounder) mammals ( Steller's sea lion), birds (

Thick-billed murre The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot (''Uria lomvia'') is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies ''Uria lomvia arra'' i ...

), and rays (the Aleutian skate, White-blotched skate, and the Alaska skate) and an important food source for birds, other fish and mammals.

Fisheries

Atka mackerel are used as food in the Aleutian chain, and can be

caught Caught is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket. A batsman is out caught if the batsman hits the ball, from a legitimate delivery, with the bat, and the ball is caught by the bowler or a fielder before it hits the ground. If the catch ...

game fish Game fish, sport fish or quarry refer to popular fish species pursued by recreational fishing, recreational fishers (typically angling, anglers), and can be freshwater fish, freshwater or saltwater fish. Game fish can be fish as food, eaten aft ...

. American

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

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 ...

wrote about fishing for Atka mackerel on May 28, 1892, in ''American Food and Game Fishes'':

The fish were in schools and it was easy to get great numbers; in fact, one would be kept very busy hauling in the fish and taking them off the hook... When first hooked they would come up very readily, in fact they seemed to swim upward until near the surface when they would become alarmed and dart back and forth in their efforts to free themselves. The sport was very exciting. During 4 hours fishing 9 persons with 26 lines took 585 fish... And as our ship was out of fresh meat of every kind, all these fish were soon eaten by the officers and crew.Jordan, David. Barton Evermann. American Food and Game Fishes. New York. Doubleday, Page & Company. 1923. pg. 500

References

External links

Atka mackerel at FishbaseAtka mackerel at NOAA
{{DEFAULTSORT:mackerel, Atka Atka mackerel Fish of the North Pacific Atka mackerel