Atka mackerel | |
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Atka mackerel caught near Homer, Alaska, USA | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Scorpaeniformes |
Family: | Hexagrammidae |
Genus: | Pleurogrammus |
Species: | P. monopterygius |
Binomial name | |
Pleurogrammus monopterygius (Pallas, 1810) | |
Synonyms | |
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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 Arabesque greenling (Pleurogrammus azonus). The Atka mackerel was named for Atka Island (Atx̂ax̂ [1] in Aleut), the largest island of the Andreanof islands, a branch of the Aleutians.
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. [2]
Atka mackerel were once considered to be synonymous with Arabesque greenlings. [3] 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. [4]
Able to live up to 14 years, [5] the largest Atka mackerel recorded was 56.5 centimetres (22.2 in) long; [5] the heaviest recorded weight was 2.0 kilograms (4.4 lb). [6] Adults have five vertical, blackish bands on their bodies, [7] 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 fins. They have 21 spines, and anywhere from 25-29 rays on their dorsal fins, and only one spine (but 24-26 rays) on their anal fins. [8]
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 and Bowers Bank in the Aleutian chain to Icy bay, Alaska. [9] [8] They can also be rarely seen as far south as Redondo Beach, California. [8]
Atka mackerel can generally be found from the intertidal zone to depths up to 575 metres (1,886 ft). [10]
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. [11]
The fish feed on copepods and euphausiids. They are, in turn, preyed upon by several species such as bony fishes, (coho salmon, sablefish, Polypera simushirae , Pacific cod, Pacific halibut, and Arrowtooth flounder) mammals (Steller's sea lion), birds (Thick-billed murre), and rays (the Aleutian skate, White-blotched skate, and the Alaska skate) and an important food source for birds, other fish and mammals. [8] [12]
Atka mackerel are used as food in the Aleutian chain, and can be caught as game fish. American 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. [13]
Aleuts 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 and the Russian administrative division of Kamchatka Krai. This group is also known as the Unangax̂ in Unangam Tunuu, the Aleut language. There are 13 federally recognized Aleut tribes in the Aleut Region of Alaska. In 2000, Aleuts in Russia were recognized by government decree as a small-numbered Indigenous people.
The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and the Americas. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves. The Bering Sea is named after Vitus Bering, a Danish navigator in Russian service, who, in 1728, was the first European to systematically explore it, sailing from the Pacific Ocean northward to the Arctic Ocean.
The City of Unalaska is the main population center in the Aleutian Islands. The city is in the Aleutians West Census Area, a regional component of the Unorganized Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Unalaska is located on Unalaska Island and neighboring Amaknak Island in the Aleutian Islands off mainland Alaska. The population was 4,254 at the 2020 census, which is 81% of the entire Aleutians West Census Area. Unalaska is the second largest city in the Unorganized Borough, behind Bethel.
The Commander Islands, Komandorski Islands, or Komandorskie Islands are a series of islands in the Russian Far East, a part of the Aleutian Islands, located about 175 km (109 mi) east of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea. Treeless and sparsely populated, the islands consist of Bering Island, Medny Island and fifteen islets and rocks. The largest of the latter are Tufted Puffin Rock (Kamen Toporkov or Ostrov Toporkov), 15 ha, and Kamen Ariy, which are between 3 km (1.9 mi) and 13 km (8.1 mi) west of the only settlement, Nikolskoye. Administratively, the Commanders compose the Aleutsky District of the Kamchatka Krai in Russia.
Adak Island or Father Island is an island near the western extent of the Andreanof Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Alaska's southernmost city, Adak, is located on the island. The island has a land area of 274.59 square miles (711.18 km2), measuring 33.9 miles (54.5 km) long and 22 miles (35 km) wide, making it the 25th largest island in the United States.
Hexagrammidae, the greenlings, is a family of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the suborder Cottoidei in the order Scorpaeniformes. These fishes are found in the North Pacific Ocean.
Agattu is an island in Alaska, part of the Near Islands in the western end of the Aleutian Islands. With a land area of 85.558 square miles (221.59 km2) Agattu is one of the largest uninhabited islands in the Aleutians. It is the second largest of the Near Islands, after Attu Island. It is volcanic and considerably mountainous. The treeless island has a tundra-like terrain which reaches a peak of 2,073 feet (632 m) above sea level. Its length is 19 miles (30 km) and width is 12.2 miles (19.7 km).
The lingcod or ling cod, also known as the buffalo cod or cultus cod, is a fish of the greenling family Hexagrammidae. It is the only extant member of the genus Ophiodon. A slightly larger, extinct species, Ophiodon ozymandias, is known from fossils from the Late Miocene of Southern California.
The painted greenling is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Zaniolepididae, which includes this species and the combfishes. It is endemic to the northeast Pacific Ocean. It is the only species in the genus Oxylebius.
The rock greenling is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Hexagrammidae, the greenlings. It is sometimes known as fringed greenling and erroneously as the red rock trout.
Bathyraja maculata, the white-blotched skate, is a species of skate from the western North Pacific Ocean. An adult is approximately 1 meter in length, and is found at depths of up to 1 kilometer. Unlike any other known member of the genus Bathyraja, the white-blotched skate has white blotches on a grey to brown dorsal surface, while the ventral side is lighter in color with darker blotches. Dorsal side is rough with spines, while the ventral side is smooth.
Zaniolepis, the combfishes, is a genus of marine ray-finned fish, it is one of two genera in the family Zaniolepididae. These fishes are native to the eastern Pacific Ocean. Z. frenata that was a source of food to the Native American inhabitants of San Nicolas Island off the coast of southern California, United States during the Middle Holocene.
The Okhotsk Atka mackerel, also known as the Arabesque greenling, is a mackerel-like species in the family Hexagrammidae. It is commonly known as hokke in Japan and imyeonsu in Korean. The primary population of the fish is found off the Sea of Okhotsk.
The Zaniolepididae is a family of marine ray-finned fishes classified within the suborder Cottoidei of the order Scorpaeniformes. They are found in the North Pacific Ocean.
The Aleutian Islands —also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain of 14 main, larger volcanic islands and 55 smaller ones. Most of the Aleutian Islands belong to the U.S. state of Alaska, with the archipelago encompassing the Aleutians West Census Area and the Aleutians East Borough. The Commander Islands, located further to the west, belong to the Russian federal subject of Kamchatka Krai, of the Russian Far East. The islands form part of the Aleutian Arc of the Northern Pacific Ocean, and occupy a land area of 6,821 sq mi (17,666 km2) that extends westward roughly 1,200 mi (1,900 km) from the Alaskan Peninsula mainland, in the direction of the Kamchatka Peninsula; the archipelago acts as a border between the Bering Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. Crossing longitude 180°, at which point east and west longitude end, the archipelago contains both the westernmost and easternmost parts of the United States, by longitude. The westernmost U.S. island, in real terms, however, is Attu Island, west of which runs the International Date Line. While nearly all of the archipelago is part of Alaska at the extreme western end, the small, geologically-related Commander Islands belong to Russia.
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The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) is one of eight regional councils established by the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976 to manage the fisheries of the United States. With jurisdiction over the 900,000-square-mile (2,300,000 km2) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Alaska, the Council has primary responsibility for groundfish management in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, including cod, pollock, flatfish, mackerel, sablefish, and rockfish species. Other large Alaska fisheries such as salmon, crab and herring are managed primarily by the State of Alaska.
Pleurogrammus is a genus of ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Hexagrammidae, the greenlings, known as Atka mackerels. These fishes are found in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
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Sebastes polyspinis, the northern rockfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Sebastinae, the rockfishes, part of the family Scorpaenidae. It is native to the waters of the northern Pacific Ocean.