The Skipper (Scomberesox saurus) in the Southern North Sea and the Thames Estuary

Abstract

THE skipper or saury pike is a pelagic fish of the open Atlantic and Mediterranean, ranging from Tristan da Cunha¹ northwards to the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy² in the western Atlantic, and to Christiana Fjord and Gjesvaer, near the North Cape, in the European Atlantic³. On the southern and south-western British coast it is of frequent, if not annual, occurrence, and catches of up to 100,000 have been reported at Mevagissey, Cornwall⁴. Farther north it has often been recorded from the Hebrides, the western Scottish coast and the Shetland and Orkney Islands⁵, but the number of records decreases noticeably on the eastern coast of Scotland. Rae (personal communication) has found a specimen off Buchan Ness, Aberdeenshire (November 21, 1957) ; one in the Moray Firth (December 18, 1958) ; a shoal at Saltburn, Cromarty Firth (December 21, 1958) ; one at May Island, Firth of Forth (December 1, 1958) ; and one from a cod stomach 12′ N. St. Abbs, Berwick (February 18, 1959).