The Atlantic saury (''Scomberesox saurus'') is a fish of 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 ...

Scomberesocidae Sauries are fish of the family (biology), family Scomberesocidae. There are two Genus, genera, each containing two species. The name ''Scomberesocidae'' is derived from ''scomber'' (which in turn is derived from the Greek language, Greek ''skomb ...

found in the North Atlantic Ocean from the

Gulf of Saint Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence is a gulf that fringes the shores of the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada, plus the islands Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, possessions of France, in ...

, Canada south to

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

and

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

in the western Atlantic and from Iceland to Morocco in the eastern Atlantic, it is also found in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

, the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

and the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

Description

The Atlantic saury is an elongated slender fish with very long, beak-like jaws with minute teeth. The fish grow to about in length, with a maximum length of . They have a row of

finlet 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 only b ...

s behind their

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage The fus ...

and

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 ...

s. They are similar in appearance to

garfish The garfish (''Belone belone''), also known as the garpike, needlefish or sea needle, is a pelagic, oceanodromous needlefish found in brackish and marine waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Black, and Baltic Seas. De ...

but differ in having much smaller teeth. Atlantic sauries live near the surface, and will often jump above the surface.

Distribution and habitat

The Atlantic saury is native to the northern Atlantic Ocean, being present off the coast of North America, from the

and

, and off the coast of Western Europe. It has occasionally been recorded as far north as Iceland, Norway and Denmark, the British Isles and the Baltic Sea, its main range is further south in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea including the Adriatic Sea and the Aegean Seas and the coast of Tunisia and Morocco. Its depth range is down to about . When it was caught off the coast of Pembrokeshire in 1904, it was not recognised as a British fish, but with warming sea temperatures, it is expanding its range northwards.

Ecology

The fish are gregarious, feeding on

zooplankton Zooplankton are the heterotrophic component of the planktonic community (the " zoo-" prefix comes from ), having to consume other organisms to thrive. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequent ...

and

fish larva A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fins and a hard skull, but lacking limbs with digits. Fish can be grouped into the more basal jawless fish and the more common jawed fis ...

e, and are hunted by

tuna A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bul ...

marlin Marlins are fish from the family Istiophoridae, which includes between 9 and 11 species, depending on the taxonomic authority. Name The family's common name is thought to derive from their resemblance to a sailor's marlinspike. Taxonomy T ...

bluefish The bluefish (''Pomatomus saltatrix'') is the only extant species of the family Pomatomidae. It is a marine pelagic fish found around the world in temperate and subtropical waters, except for the northern Pacific Ocean. Bluefish are known as ta ...

and

cod Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...

. It is a migratory fish, moving inshore during the summer and back out into deep water later in the year. Spawning takes place near the surface in the open sea. The eggs have filaments attached and are

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

. The juveniles inhabit tropical mid-oceanic waters; their jaws are relatively short at first, but elongate as they grow.

References

* Encyclopædia Britannica, 1988, volume 10, pg 477 {{Taxonbar, from=Q1886478 Scomberesox Taxa named by Johann Julius Walbaum Fish described in 1792