Pacific saury
| Pacific saury | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Beloniformes |
| Family: | Scomberesocidae |
| Genus: | Cololabis |
| Species: | C. saira |
| Binomial name | |
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Cololabis saira (Brevoort, 1856) |
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The Pacific saury (Cololabis saira) is a member of the family Scomberesocidae. This saury, which is a food source in some East Asian cuisines, is also known by the name mackerel pike.
It is known as sanma (サンマ / 秋刀魚) in Japanese, 秋刀鱼 (Simplified Chinese) or 秋刀魚 (Traditional Chinese); Pinyin:qiū dāo yú in Chinese, and saira (сайра) in Russian. Pacific saury are often imported to the United Kingdom where they are used as bait for sea fishing. In the UK they are usually called blueys, possibly due to people confusing the Pacific saury with blue mackerel.
The term saira used in its scientific name is the fish's local name in the Kii Peninsula region of Japan.
The Chinese characters used in the Chinese and Japanese names of the fish (秋刀鱼/秋刀魚) literally translate as "autumn knife fish", in reference to its body shape, somewhat resembling a knife, and its peak season.
It is a fish with a small mouth, an elongated body, a series of small finlets between the dorsal and anal fins, and a small forked tail. The color of the fish is dark green to blue on the dorsal surface, silvery below, and there are small, bright blue blotches distributed randomly on the sides. The average overall body length of a mature Pacific saury is 25 to 28 cm, and their maximum reported age is four years.
These pelagic schooling fish are found in the North Pacific, from Japan eastward to the Gulf of Alaska and southward to subtropical Mexico; 67°N – 18°N, 137°E – 108°W, preferring temperatures around 15 – 18 °C. Pacific saury are usually found near the surface (though they may have a depth range of 0 – 230 m), and they are known to glide above the surface of the water when moving away from predators (a behavior that links them to the flying fish, a cousin of the saury family).
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Wikipedia