Divefree

Fish

King Mackerel

Scomberomorus commerson

The mighty 'couta' of Natal - a huge, fast pelagic mackerel with shearing triangular teeth and a place among the top game fish of our coast.

Also known as katonkel

King Mackerel
Photo: Luis P. B. · CC BY-NC 4.0
Typical size
Attains 220 cm
Habitat
Epipelagic, coastal (neritic)

The king mackerel is a large, slender pelagic with big triangular, compressed teeth and no distinct corselet of enlarged scales. It grows to a remarkable 220 cm, the all-tackle record a 46.4 kg fish taken off Ifafa, Natal in 1983.

An open-water, coastal species, it is often caught near Algoa Bay and Mossel Bay and once formed a large school in False Bay. Widespread through the Red Sea and Indo-West Pacific, it is wrongly called 'couta' or 'barracuda' by some anglers - the true barracudas are a separate family.