Silver spears

  

I've been busy at work lately, but I wanted to share this photo of Pacific Saury (Cololabis saira) from 22 September 2024. 

Willy kindly wrote to let me know that Mike and Spinner caught these fish just off Point Reyes on 22 September 2024.  

I don't know a lot about Pacific Saury, but it sounds like they're more common 40-100 miles off the coast, so seeing them so close to shore is notable.  They're often associated with sea water temperatures ~60°F (57-63°F) — and can be hanging out in the same water as albacore.  [I noticed another Pacific Saury report from the Farallon Islands in late August.]

Note the small finlets at the tail end of the body (between the dorsal/anal fins and the caudal fin) — very mackerel like.  Sauries are in the Scomberesocidae family — "Scomber" refers to their similarities with mackerel.

Pacific Sauries are commonly 25-30 cm (10-12") long.  They have a broad distribution in the Pacific Ocean, but are known to migrate north to the Gulf of Alaska for the summer and then south to California in the fall.

P.S.  The species name "saira" refers to a Japanese word for spear, presumably after the long slender shape of the fish.  The genus Cololabis means "short lips" — interesting to me because the Atlantic Saury (Scomberesox saurus) has very long lips!  You can see a nice photo here.

P.P.S.  Many thanks to Willy, Mike, and Spinner for sharing this observation!