Spanish mackerel, continued 



Table 5.42. Relative abundance of Spanish mack- 

 erel in 31 Gulf of Mexico estuaries (from Volume I). 



Life stage 



Relative abundance: 



# Highly abundant 



® Abundant 



O Common 



V Rare 



blank Not present 



Life stage: 



A - Adults 

 S - Spawning 

 J - Juveniles 

 L - Larvae 

 E - Eggs 



in U.S. federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GMFMC 

 1996b). 



Indicator of Environmental Stress This species, along 

 with others, has been used to study heavy metal 

 contamination in marine fish. No levels of contamina- 

 tion were found that might constitute a threat to public 

 health (Meaburn 1978). 



Ecological : This is a high trophic level, pelagic carni- 

 vore that feeds predominantly on fish in the marine 

 environment and in higher salinity, seaward portions of 

 estuaries (Benson 1982, Shipp 1986, NOAA 1993). 



Range 



Overall : This species is distributed along the western 

 Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to Florida, along the 

 north coast of Cuba, and in the Gulf of Mexico from the 

 Florida Keys to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico (Erdman 

 1949, Powell 1975, Collette and Russo 1978, Collette 

 et al. 1978, Sutherland and Fable 1980, Collette and 

 Nauen 1 983, Shipp 1 986, Fable et al. 1 987, Gilhen and 

 McAllister 1 989). This is a summer visitor all along the 

 U.S. Atlantic coast as far north as New York, and 

 occurs less regularly along the southern coasts of New 

 England. It occasionally strays into colder waters 

 northward with captures of single fish reported from 

 Maine (Bigelow and Schroeder 1 953) and Nova Scotia 

 (Gilhen and McAllister 1989), but is most common in 

 subtropical and tropical coastal waters (Shipp 1986). 

 The center of abundance appears to be the Atlantic 

 coast of Florida (Dwinell and Futch 1973, Trent and 

 Anthony 1978, Fable et al. 1987). Populations of the 

 Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic may comprise two distinct 

 stocks (Johnson 1981, Skow and Chittenden 1981). 



Within Study Area : The Spanish mackerel occurs from 

 the Florida Keys to the Rio Grande River (Table 5.42), 

 but is generally less common west of the Mississippi 

 River delta (Dwinell and Futch 1973, Collette and 

 Russo 1978, Fable et al. 1987). 



Life Mode 



The Spanish mackerel is an epipelagic and neritic 

 species and is often found in large schools (Higgins 

 and Lord 1926, Franks et al. 1972, Moe 1972, Christ- 

 mas and Waller 1 973, Powell 1 975, Rice 1 979, Benson 

 1982, Collette and Nauen 1983). Schools occur near 

 the water surface and, in the past, have covered 

 several square kilometers of area (Berrien and Finan 

 1 977). Activity and feeding appear to be evenly distrib- 

 uted between day and night (Tabb and Manning 1 961 , 

 Zimmerman 1969, Moe 1972). 



321 



