Sardine

Where it lives

European sardine inhabits the eastern Atlantic from the North Sea to Senegal and throughout the Mediterranean. They are pelagic, forming vast dense schools in upper coastal waters and following plankton blooms along the African and Iberian shelves.

How to recognise it

A small, elongated, herring-like fish with a deeply forked tail, large silvery scales, and a row of faint dark spots along the upper flanks. The lower jaw projects beyond the upper. Gill-cover striations are a distinctive feature absent from many similar clupeids.

Diet & behavior

Sardines are filter feeders, straining phytoplankton and zooplankton through fine gill rakers as they swim. Their schools wheel and pulse in unison to confuse predators. Spawning happens through much of the year over the continental shelf.

Fisheries & Conservation

Globally Least Concern. Iberian and Moroccan sardine fisheries are some of the oldest and largest in the Atlantic, supplying canneries with the small fish that gave their name to the catchall culinary “sardine.”