IDENTIFICATION
King mackerel are commonly called Couta. They are large fish with an elongated body, grey-blue on top and silvery sides.
They have a white belly and distinctive keels at the base of the tail. The fish’s sides are marked with many irregular vertical bars. Couta have very sharp teeth.

DISTRIBUTION
Couta are wide-spread throughout the Red Sea and Indo-Pacific waters. The local population spends summers off KwaZulu-Natal and the former Transkei migrating back to Mozambique waters during winter. They occur primarily over deep water reefs but also frequent inshore reefs. In the 1950's Couta were caught off North Pier in Durban by anglers using spoons, but this seldom happens today.

FEEDING
They feed on anchovies, mackerel, sardines and shad, mantis shrimps and prawns. Couta are free swimming, pelagic fish that normally congregate in shoals. However, larger individuals do hunt alone.

REPRODUCTION
Couta mature at 70 - 100 cm, and spawning occurs in tropical waters during summer. No spawning fish have been observed in KZN waters and it is likely that most spawning occurs off Mozambique.

GROWTH
It is a very fast growing fish with females reaching maturity in 3 years. Adults can attain 220 cm fork length and over 5 years in age. In 1975 a record 48.6 kg specimen was caught near Hibberdene.

FISHERY
This is one of the most important recreational game fish on the KwaZulu-Natal coast targeted by primarily by skiboat anglers, spear fishermen. During an exceptional run in 1989 Couta comprised 68% of skiboat angler's catches, 53% of spear fishermen's catch and 12% of the commercial catch. Between 1985 and 1991 an average of 123 tonnes of couta were were caught annually in KZN waters. The most common size caught is 85 cm fork length. At this size most of the fish have not yet matured.

MANAGEMENT

• Under the Marine Living Resources Act the species is classified as an exploitable species.
  
• Commercial and semi-commercial fishermen have no bag limit.
• Recreational anglers and spear fishermen are allowed 10 per person per day.
• There is no size limit.

The illegal sale of this fish by sport anglers is threatening the status of the king mackerel.

Rudy van der Elst, Bruce Mann and Vuyiswa Radebe are acknowledged for the scientific information on which this publication is based.