Indian mackerel is distributed along coastal waters of the Indian Ocean and West Pacific (FAO 2016). No morphometric differences were found between the SW and the SE Indian coasts considering the existence of a unique stock (Remya et al. 2014) but the structure of the stock is not studied in the neighbouring areas, namely in the Bay of Bengal region (BOBLME 2012), and further genetic studies are needed to complement this conclusion. The map below regards the distribution of the species in India reflecting the assessment unit assumed along the Indian coast taking into account the stock assessments performed (Yohannan and Sivadas n.d.; BOBLME 2011).
More recently was concluded that a SE Asia population surrounding the Indonesian-Malaysian archipelagos (South China Sea, Strait of Malacca, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, Andaman Sea) and an Iranian population (western Indian Ocean) exist but more samples should be gathered in the western Indian Ocean to have a clear evidence of the stock structure in the region (Akib et al. 2015).