Atlantic herring

📖 Overview

Herring schools move between spawning and wintering grounds in coastal areas and feeding grounds in open water by following migration patterns learned from earlier year classes . Juveniles (up to 2 years) shoal close inshore, while adults are found more offshore . Adults spend the day in deeper water, but rise to shallower water at night . Light is an important factor in controlling their vertical distribution. A facultative zooplanktivorous filter-feeder, i.e., it can switch to filter-feeding if the food density and particle size are appropriate . Feed mainly on copepods finding food by visual sense. Herring schools often attract predators such as fish, birds, and marine mammals . Schooling, silvery sides, excellent hearing (capable of detecting frequencies between 30-4,000 Hz , Refs. 89391, 89564, 89566), and very fast escape response act as anti-predator devices . The most important races in the East Atlantic are the winter-spawning Norwegian and Icelandic herring, the autumn spawning Icelandic and North Sea herring and the Baltic Sea herring. Utilized fresh, dried or salted, smoked, canned and frozen; can be fried, broiled, microwaved and baked .

🔬 Taxonomy

🐟 Physical Description

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 13 - 21; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 12 - 23; Vertebrae: 51 - 60. Slender fish with a round belly. Scutes without prominent keel; 12 to 16 post-pelvic scutes . No median notch in upper jaw; operculum without radiating bony striae; the posterior border of its gill opening is evenly rounded. It is blue to greenish-blue dorsally, becoming silvery ventrally. No distinctive dark spots on the body or fins .: fusiform / normal; Cross section: compressed.

🌀 Behaviour

Atlantic Herring aggregate in some of the largest fish schools in the ocean, sometimes numbering billions of individuals spanning kilometres. Schools coordinate their movements with remarkable precision. They are important forage fish for almost every major predator in the North Atlantic ecosystem.

🦐 Diet

Herring are planktivores feeding on copepods, krill, amphipods, and small fish larvae. They filter feed at night when zooplankton migrates to the surface.

🥚 Reproduction

The herring matures between 2-9 years. Herring populations are known to use traditional spawning grounds, many of which are along shallow coastal areas (15-40 m depth) or on offshore banks down to 200 m. Spawning usually occurs on gravel or rock bottoms, with the exception of Baltic populations which show a preference for shallow (less than 10 m depth) seaweed beds. Each population spawns only once a year over a relatively short time period . At least one population is spawning in any one month of the year, each having a different spawning time and place. The herring is a demersal spawner that releases a ribbon of sticky eggs that sink to the sea bed and adhere to the substrate. The eggs released by a spawning population may be several layers thick which may deprive eggs in the bottom layers of oxygen, causing egg mortality . Although higher fecundities were reported earlier (e.g. Ref. 74523), fecundity now ranges from 10,000-60,000 eggs . Hatching may take up to 3 weeks, depending on temperature . Larvae are pelagic and drift with the current. Note: it is impossible to summarize briefly the wide range of spawning strategies of Atlantic herring; the best reviews are those of Svetovidov for the Eastern Atlantic Ocean and Hildebrand for the Western Atlantic Ocean.

🌍 Habitat & Distribution

Marine; brackish; benthopelagic; oceanodromous ; depth range 0 - 364 m , usually 0 - 200 m . Temperate; 0°C - 18°C ; 80°N - 32°N, 95°W - 70°E North Atlantic: in the west, it ranges from southwestern Greenland and Labrador southward to South Carolina, USA.

🌿 Ecology

📐 Morphometrics

🌡️ Water Parameters & Tolerance

🛡️ Conservation Assessment

📊 Population Risk & Fisheries

🍽️ Edibility & Flavour

"Atlantic herring is prized for its firm, flavourful flesh and outstanding eating quality."

⚡ Nutrition

Per 100g cooked - Source: USDA FoodData Central

🔬 Mercury Safety

🌿 Sustainability

🌐 Names & Taxonomy

Scientific Synonyms

… and 11 more synonyms

🐠 Related Species

🔍 Similar Species

🗺️ Global Occurrence Map

Occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) - 7,473 records indexed .

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