occur as far out as . A single female can spawn as many as 450,000 eggs in a spawning season. Eggs mature in batches over the course of a week and are pelagic once released, remaining within of the surface. Time to hatching is dependent on the water temperature, and ranges from 2 days at to 8.5 days at . Most eggs are spawned in waters in temperature, and as such the majority of eggs hatch in about a week. Eggs are anywhere from in size, trending towards smaller as the spawning season goes on. Larvae undergo three developmental stages: the yolk sac stage, the larval stage, and the post-larval stage. Larvae are when they hatch and feed on the yolk sac for about 5 days. During the larval stage, which lasts about a month, larvae grow to in length. They are largely incapable of swimming, instead floating with the current. During the post-larval stage, which occurs over the next 40 days and during which the fish reaches in length, it swims to the surface at night and down to deeper waters during the day. At the end of the post-larval stage, juveniles resemble an adult mackerel in all but size. Schooling behavior occurs around this time. Sexual maturity is reached at around 2 years of age, though some fish may reproduce a season earlier or a season later. Though some fish are sexually mature at in length, even by only about half of females will be ready to reproduce. At , 90% of fish are capable of reproduction. An Atlantic mackerel can live for up to 17 years and attain a length of and a weight of . Human interaction The Atlantic mackerel is of commercial importance to many Atlantic fisheries, which catch it with purse seines, trawls, gill and trammel nets, and trolling lines. Global annual catch is typically in the range of 1 million tonnes, though a 50% spike in 2014 put this number at nearly 1.5 million tonnes. The United Kingdom and Norway bring in the most Atlantic mackerel, with annual catches coming in at over 166,000 tonnes and 160,000 tonnes respectively. There are three stocks in the eastern Atlantic: one in the south, one in the west, and another in the North Sea. There are two populations in the Mediterranean, one in the east and one in the west. In the western Atlantic there are