Morphological Studies on the Jack Mackerel Populations

This work concerns morphological studies of the Japaness jack mackerel, Trachurus japonicus(Temminck & Schlegel). A total of 48 random samples consisting of 2669 fish is examined, representing three geographic regions, namely, Kamakura, Nagasaki, and Tottori. Preservation affects length and weight of fish considerably, but the variability after 10 days is shown to be negligible. The variability in measuring the morphometric characters due to different measures and orders is found to be significant. They are relatively small, however, compared to the variability in mean length to be expected in samples drawn from the population. Two meristic characters, namely, anal and second dorsal fin rays and three morphometric characters, namely, head length, first and second dorsal insertion distances are chosen for the study. Results of the statistical analysis reveal that differences in the selected meristic characters among samples within and between regions are found to be significant. In general, it is reasonable to state that the jack mackerel collected in Nagasaki region, on the average, have greatest number of anal fin ray and second dorsal fin ray followed by Kamakura, and Tottori regions in that order. It is found that although no significant differences in the slope of regression line are noticed, the mean differences of the selected morphometric measurements in relation to fish length are found to be significant among samples within each region. Differences in the regression coefficients as well as the adjusted sample means are found to be significant between regions. The analysis suggests that samples from Nagasaki region, on the average, have longest head length and greatest distances from snout to the insertion of first dorsal and second dorsal fins followed by Kamakura, and Tottori regions in that order.