Chub mackerel
Amazing fact
Some Pacific chub mackerel schools stay around shallow seabed areas near peninsulas and islands.
東京都島しょ農林水産総合センター
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Some Pacific chub mackerel schools stay around shallow seabed areas near peninsulas and islands.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Chub mackerel
- Scientific name
- Scomber japonicus
- Japanese name
- マサバ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Scombriformes
- Family
- Scombridae
- Genus
- Scomber
A fish of subtropical and temperate seas around the world that travels in large schools.
Its back is blue-green with wavy black markings that look worm-eaten, and its belly is silvery-white.
By day it stays in somewhat deeper water, and at night it rises toward the surface. It eats fish such as sardines, and squid.
How the Chub mackerel lives
They spawn from spring to summer, with spawning beginning earlier in southern regions. Their eggs are round like a ball. Newly hatched young eat small animal plankton.
東京都島しょ農林水産総合センターBasic data
- Size
- Body length: up to 50 cm
- Diet
- Fish such as sardines and horse mackerel, squid, krill, and other animals
- Range
- Subtropical and temperate seas worldwide
Where the Chub mackerel has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- マサバ
- 简体中文
- 日本鲭
- 繁體中文
- 白腹鯖
- 한국어
- 참고등어
- Español
- Estornino
- Français
- Bis
- Deutsch
- Japanische Makrele
- Português (Brasil)
- Cavala-do-pacífico
- Italiano
- Lanzardo
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Ikan salem
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá sa ba
- Русский
- Японская скумбрия
- Türkçe
- Kolyoz
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 東京都島しょ農林水産総合センター — マサバChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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