Pilchard, European

General

Herring-like fish

There are two families in the order Clupeiformes; the herring family (Clupidae) and the anchovy family (Engraulidae) and are relatively small, silver-coloured fish.  They swim in large, pelagic schools and feed on plankton. They are occasionally found near the shore, however they usually swim further out in the open sea at depths up to 200 m. Most species are capable of producing a lot of eggs each spawning event, up to 200.000 per adult female. A large share of the global wild catch consists of haring-like fish. Not everything is used for direct human consumption, a large share is processed as fish meal or fish oil that form the essential ingredient for fish feed in aquaculture. Haring-like fish swim in large schools which makes them susceptible to large scale (industrial) fishing.

Pilchard, European

The European pilchard can mainly be found in the north-east Atlantic Ocean but can also be found in the Mediterranean Sea. Their name originates from the island Sardinia, as large populations of sardine used to surround this area. The European pilchard always swim in large schools and feed on plankton. They normally reach up to sizes of 20 cm and can reach an age of 15 years.