The snake mackerel, Gempylus serpens, is a species of fish in the monotypic genus Gempylus, belonging to the family Gempylidae (which is also referred to generally as "snake mackerels"). It is found worldwide in tropical and subtropical oceans between the latitudes of 42° N and 40° S; adults are known to stray into temperate waters. It is found to a depth of 600 meters (1,970 ft). Populations of the snake mackerel from the Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific differ in vertebral count (51-55 versus 48-50) and number of first dorsal fin spines (30-32 versus 26-30), and so may represent separate species.
Read more about Snake Mackerel: Description, Behaviour, Human Interaction
Famous quotes containing the words snake and/or mackerel:
“Edible. Good to eat and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“Three miles long and two streets wide, the town curls around the bay ... a gaudy run with Mediterranean splashes of color, crowded steep-pitched roofs, fishing piers and fishing boats whose stench of mackerel and gasoline is as aphrodisiac to the sensuous nose as the clean bar-whisky smell of a nightclub where call girls congregate.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)