horse mackerel
鯵 refers specifically to the horse mackerel, a type of fish. The meaning is narrow and concrete, centered on this particular fish species.
鯵 is a phono-semantic compound: the fish radical 魚 indicates the meaning 'fish', while 参 likely contributes the sound ソウ. The character was created to name the horse mackerel.
The left side 魚 means fish, and the right side 参 looks like a person joining a feast. Imagine a horse mackerel joining a seafood platter.
For ソウ, picture a horse mackerel swimming in the sea with a soulful expression: soul -> ソウ, and the fish looks deep in thought.
horse mackerel (Carangidae spp., esp. the Japanese horse mackerel, Trachurus japonicus); jack mackerel; pompano; scad
ragfish (Icosteus aenigmaticus)
brownstriped mackerel scad (Decapterus muroadsi)
giant trevally (Caranx ignobilis)
Japanese jack mackerel; Japanese horse mackerel (Trachurus japonicus)
horse mackerel caught in autumn
bigeye trevally (Caranx sexfasciatus); bigeye jack; great trevally; six-banded trevally; dusky jack
lookdown (Selene vomer)
split and dried saurel
deep-fried horse mackerel
blue trevally (Carangoides ferdau); banded trevally; barred trevally; Ferdau's trevally; Forskaal's jackfish