The Atka mackerel ( Pleurogrammus monopterygius) is a species of greenling, a Actinopterygii 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 Arabesque greenling ( Pleurogrammus azonus). The Atka mackerel was named for Atka Island ( Atx̂ax̂
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, 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. Wiley, New York.] The combined species would have been called the Okhotsk Atka mackerel, 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]
Despite its name, it is not closely related to true mackerels of the family Scombridae, whereas the Atka mackerel is most closely related to the lingcod and Hexagrammos, and more distantly to Sculpin and lumpfishes.
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 spines and rays that they have on their . They have 21 spines, and anywhere from 25–29 rays on their , and only one spine (but 24–26 rays) on their .
Distribution and habitat
Found exclusively in the northern Pacific, Atka mackerel are known from the Sea of Japan and the waters off Hokkaido, as well as the southern Kuril Islands, and from Stalemate Bank 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.][
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Atka mackerel can generally be found from the intertidal zone 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 Egg incubation 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 and euphausiids. They are, in turn, predation by several species such as bony fishes, (coho salmon, sablefish, Polypera, Pacific cod, Pacific halibut, and Arrowtooth flounder) mammals (Steller's sea lion), birds (Thick-billed murre), and Rajidae (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 angling as sport fishing. United States ichthyologist David Starr Jordan 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]
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