Jack mackerels or saurels[ are marine ray-finned fish in the genus Trachurus of the family Carangidae. The name of the genus derives from the Greek words trachys ("rough") and oura ("tail"). Some species, such as T. murphyi, are harvested in Seine fishing, and overfishing (harvesting beyond sustainable levels) has sometimes occurred.][C.Michael Hogan. 2010. Overfishing. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. eds. Sidney Draggan and C.Cleveland. Washington DC.
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It is often used in Japanese cuisine, where it is called aji, in Turkish cuisine, where it is called istavrit, and in Portuguese Cuisine, where it is called carapau.
Species
The genus Trachurus was defined in 1810 by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, who called the type species Trachurus saurus. Taxonomists later determined that T. saurus was in fact the same species as one described earlier as Scomber trachurus, defined in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus. Under the rules of binomial nomenclature, that species is now known as Trachurus trachurus, commonly known as the Atlantic horse mackerel.
The currently recognized species in this genus are:
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| southeastern Atlantic from the Gulf of Guinea to eastern South Africa. |
| western and southern Australia, and around New Zealand |
| south western Indian Ocean. |
| Red Sea and Somalia through the Persian Gulf east as far as Pakistan and south to the Saya de Malha Bank. |
| Japan, apart from Okinawa Island |
| eastern coasts of North and South America and the Gulf of Mexico |
| east Atlantic and south western Indian Oceans |
| eastern Atlantic from Bay of Biscay to Mauritania, including the Mediterranean Sea. |
| south Pacific off the coasts of Chile and Peru, around New Zealand and south Australia, and in a band across the open ocean in between |
| Australia and New Zealand |
| the Bay of Biscay to south Morocco and the western Mediterranean. |
| western coast of North America, ranging from Alaska in the north to the Gulf of California in the south |
| eastern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. |
| eastern Atlantic from Morocco south to Angola |
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