Mackerel are the fastest swimming fish in UK waters, able to swim around fifty metres in ten seconds. They have no swim bladder which means they can change depth rapidly and must keep moving all of the time. Mackerel are a fast predatory fish, closely related to tuna.

A large shoal of mackerel can force smaller fish such as sandeel, herring and sprats to the surface of the sea making it look as if sections of the sea are boiling.

When mackerel are present they move in vast shoals, hunting small fish or sandeels. In some places around the south of the UK mackerel are now only absent during the winter months. However, mackerel appear to be arriving in UK waters earlier and leaving later every year, possibly as a result of rising sea temperatures. Mackerel are migratory and come to the UK in spring and early summer, when they will feed actively and then migrate to warmer seas in the autumn months to spawn, during which time they will feed little. Mackerel is a very important fish to anglers as both a sport fish and as a bait. A ridge of finlets are present running from the last dorsal fin to the tail. Shiny silver belly and lower flanks, short fins and highly forked tail. Attractive, almost tropical looking marbled blue/green back with around twenty black bars running down the flanks. Description: Slim and streamlined small fish.

Feeds on: Small but fast-moving hunter that feeds on small fish and sandeels.Distribution: Common throughout the UK and Ireland in summer months.

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