Pacific saury
Amazing fact
Pacific saury eggs have threads that tangle around drifting seaweed and other objects.
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.
Pacific saury eggs have threads that tangle around drifting seaweed and other objects.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Pacific saury
- Scientific name
- Cololabis saira
- Japanese name
- サンマ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Beloniformes
- Family
- Scomberesocidae
- Genus
- Cololabis
A fish found widely in the North Pacific that migrates through the waters of both the Kuroshio and Oyashio currents.
Its body is long and slender, and its lower jaw sticks out past the upper jaw. Its scales come off very easily.
It swims in huge schools, and when a boat comes near it escapes by skipping across the water surface like a stone.
How the Pacific saury lives
It swims near the surface of the sea. At night, it gathers around lights. It is said to lay eggs from autumn to winter or from spring to early summer.
東京都島しょ農林水産総合センターBasic data
- Size
- Body length: up to 40 cm東京都島しょ農林水産総合センター
- Lifespan
- about 2 yearsアクアマリンふくしま
- Range
- Throughout the North Pacific, including Japan東京都島しょ農林水産総合センター
Where the Pacific saury 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
- サンマ
- 简体中文
- 秋刀鱼
- 繁體中文
- 秋刀魚
- 한국어
- 꽁치
- Español
- Paparda del Pacífico
- Português (Brasil)
- Saura-do-Pacífico
- Italiano
- Costardella del Pacifico
- العربية
- صوري المحيط الهادئ
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Sauri pasifik
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá dao
- Русский
- Сайра
- Türkçe
- Pasifik Uskumru Turnası
- ไทย
- ปลาซัมมะ
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 — サンマChecked: 2026-11-03
- アクアマリンふくしま — サンマ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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