Pacific saury

About this species

The Pacific saury is species of fish in the family Scomberesocidae. Saury is a seafood in several East Asian cuisines and is also known by the name mackerel pike.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Pacific saury”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 776 records
February: 665 records
March: 663 records
April: 1,561 records
May: 988 records
June: 683 records
July: 1,319 records
August: 488 records
September: 1,509 records
October: 474 records
November: 638 records
December: 119 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 0–15 m · Deepest record: 500 m

0–10 m: 486 records
10–20 m: 62 records
20–30 m: 3 records
30–40 m: 0 records
40–50 m: 1 records
50–60 m: 2 records
60–70 m: 1 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 1 records
110+ m: 8 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 7–27 °C

6–8 °C: 1 records
8–10 °C: 4 records
10–12 °C: 204 records
12–14 °C: 92 records
14–16 °C: 266 records
16–18 °C: 350 records
18–20 °C: 67 records
20–22 °C: 6 records
22–24 °C: 1 records
24–26 °C: 0 records
26–28 °C: 1 records

Photos

(c) jetalone, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Tomomarusan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) hansk, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ryan Sorrells, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jacob Sorrentino, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) kclarksdnhmorg, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Murray McGoogan, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Pacific saury, Mackerel pike, Mackerel-pike, Skipper

Names in 6 more languages

German: Kurzschnabelmakrelenhecht
Spanish: paparda del Pacífico, Parpada del Pacífico
French: Balaou du Pacific, balaou japonais, Balaou japonais, Orphie, Samma, Saurie, Saury
Japanese: Samma, サンマ, サンマ(秋刀魚)
Korean: 꽁치
Simplified Chinese: 秋刀魚

Other scientific names: Scomberesox saira, Scombresox brevirostris

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
12,473 open-data records from 1900 to 2024.
Species data updated November 1, 2026.