Atlantic Herring

Body elongate and fairly slender, belly rather rounded, scutes without prominent keel. No median notch in upper jaw (cf. Alosa ). Gill cover (operculum) without radiating bony striae (cf. Sardinops, which has dark spots along the flank). Hind border of gill opening evenly rounded (with two fleshy outgrowths in Sardinella ). Pelvic fin insertion behind vertical from dorsal fin origin (below or in front in Sprattus ) pelvic finrays i 8 (rarely i 7 or i 9) (only Alosa and some species of Sardinella have this count; all other clupeids have i 6 or i 7). No distinctive dark spots on body or fins. Can be confused with: Overlaps C. pallasii in White Sea, but distinguished by more vertebrae and post-pelvic scutes (usually 55 to 57 and 12 to 16; cf. usually 52 to 55 and 10 to 14).

Eastern Atlantic (northern Bay of Biscay northward to Iceland and southern Greenland, eastward to Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, also Baltic; western Atlantic (southwestern Greenland, Labrador, southward to South Carolina).

To 40 cm standard length, usually 20 to 25 cm.

Coastal,pelagic down to 200 m,schooling, with complex feeding and spawning migrations, whose times and extent correlate with the various more or less distinct razes which can be recognized on morphological grounds (mainly numbers of vertebrae, finrays, scales and gillrakers).Feeds on small planktonic copepods in the first year, and thereafter mainly copepods (especially Calanus finmarchicus and Temora longicornis), but also hyperid amphipods, euphausids, mysid shrimps, small fishes, arrow-worms, ctenophores and pteropods). At least one population is spawning in any one month of the year, each race having a different spawning time and place (spring, summer, autumn and winter herrings; in 0 to 5 m off Greenland down to 200 m in autumn (bank) herrings of the North Sea; eggs laid on the sea bed, on rock, stones, gravel, sand or beds of algae or phanerogams (see also data under genus). Note: is impossible to summarize briefly the wide range of spawning strategies of Atlantic herring; the best reviews are those of Svetovidov (1952, 1963) for the eastern Atlantic and FWNA (1964) for the western Atlantic.

After a strong reduction of the total catch in the 1970's (from 4 095 394 t in 1966 to 887 533 t in 1979) due to overfishing, the catches have been recovering in the recent years exceeding two million t (2 325 781) in 1995. About 10-20% of these catches are taken in area 21 (Northwest Atlantic) while the bulk is caught in area 27 (Northeast Atlantic). The total catch reported for this species to FAO for 1999 was 2 403 543 t. The countries with the largest catches were Norway (821 435 t) and Iceland (343 769 t).