Scomber colias Gmelin, 1789

Edwards, A. J., Gill, A. C. & Abohweyere, P. O., 2003, A revision of F. R. Irvine’s Ghanaian marine fishes in the collections of The Natural History Museum, London, Journal of Natural History 37 (18), pp. 2213-2267 : 2251

Scomber colias Gmelin, 1789

Reference material. Prampram, May 1930 (Irvine 84)— BMNH 1930.8 .26.71 (one: 195 mm SL); Prampram, September 1938 (Irvine 315) .

Distribution. In warm temperate and subtropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea (Collette and Nauen, 1983; Collette, 1999).

Until recently S. colias has been considered a junior synonym of a cosmopolitan species S. japonicus Houttyn, 1782 but recent studies by Collette (1999) indicate that Atlantic and Indo-Pacific populations of chub mackerels should be recognized as two separate species with S. colias being the valid name for the Atlantic species. On average about 130 000 tonnes of this species are caught in the region each year ( FAO, 2000), making it a very important fishery species.