What is this bright blue fish?

[Dipper]

Seen today in Portland Harbour. It was about the size of a mackerel. Is it a mackerel? It seemed lost.

 

[oldharry]

Macrolius radioactivus,? Normally found near nuclear power station cooling outlets ....

 

[burgundyben]

Dory from the kids film?

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Probably a benefit tourist that hitched a ride on the Gulf Stream,

Well they say that the UK will soon be a group of tropical islands. Bummer that I will be too old or too dead to sail in them.

 

[Dipper]

I wonder if it is a blue mackerel which are found in the Pacific? It must be something unusual because nobody here seems to know what it is.

 

[Davy_S]

At a guess, it has the looks of a young Barracuda, when looking directly at one in sunshine, the fish looks similar, they have been caught of the Lizard, they are the European Barracuda, caught in the Atlantic and the Med, as no one else has had a guess, i will have one

 

[Dipper]

I managed to get a photo as well.

 

[GrahamD]

Looks like a mackerel to me

 

[Robin]

Looks like a mackerel to me

Or garfish +/-some filter on camera?

 

[Dipper]

Or garfish +/-some filter on camera?

It really was that bright blue colour. The camera hasn't changed it.

 

[Dipper]

Looks like a mackerel to me

There are some photos on the internet that show bluish mackerel so I suspect that is what it is. I normally think of them as being green.

 

[Robin]

There are some photos on the internet that show bluish mackerel so I suspect that is what it is. I normally think of them as being green.

Oddly I have a bass fishing lure/plug that is that colour too - never caught anything of note except me in the tackle shop

 

[Adios]

I managed to get a photo as well.

View attachment 139810

The pattern is very distinctive like a printed circuit board, it should be easy to identify but I just put blue fish into a image search engine and there's nothing like it. Have you tried a fishing forum?

 

[Hacker]

Send it to John Locker aka Fishlockerman via the socials. He’ll tell you what it is.

 

[Dipper]

Someone from the Ocean Conservation Trust emailed me to say that it looks very much like a mackerel so I'll go along with that. Certainly eye catching.

 

[CliveF]

its just a bog standard mackerel . They look like that in their home element as opposed to dead and dried out on the fishmongers slab.

 

[Adios]

its just a bog standard mackerel . They look like that in their home element as opposed to dead and dried out on the fishmongers slab.

Lol. oh yeah. I’ve definitely seem them in the water before though and thats seeming like a different pale blue variant. I think of mackerel as silver/green

 

[Davy_S]

I remain convinced it is not a Mackerel, nor is it a Garfish, i used to catch lots of Garfish for bait.

 

[Ammonite]

It's a mackerel

 

[Ammonite]

For those that really want to know...this is why it's blue rather than green
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jfb.14987