Japanese jack mackerel


The Japanese jack mackerel, also known as the Japanese horse mackerel or Japanese scad, is a species named after its resemblance to mackerel but which is in the family Carangidae, the jacks, pompanos, trevallies and scads. Their maximum reported length is with a common length of. They have a maximum reported weight of and a maximum reported age of 12 years. They are found around the coast of Japan, apart from Okinawa Island, usually on sandy bottoms of deep. They feed mainly on small crustaceans such as copepods, and shrimps and small fish. They are similar to the yellowtail horse mackerel around New Zealand and Australia, apart from having more gill rakers and larger eyes.
The Japanese name for the horse mackerel is aji, and by default generally implies the species Trachurus japonicus. The name is most commonly written in hiragana; although a kanji does exist, it is not in common use. It is commonly deep fried or salt-grilled.
In Korean cuisine, the fish is dubbed jeon-gaeng-i and is the default horse mackerel designated by this name. It is commonly grilled or fried as a jeon-gaeng-i gui. Among the specialties of Jeju cuisine is the soup gagjaegi-gug, the name of which is derived from the name for the fish in the Jeju language.

Fisheries

The Japanese horse mackerel is important as a commercial fish in Japan, where it is caught using trawls, purse seines, traps and longlines.