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Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the order Clupeiformes.
Herring often move in large schools around and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, including the Baltic Sea, as well as off the west coast of South America. Three species of Clupea (the type genus of the herring family Clupeidae) are recognised, and comprise about 90% of all herrings captured in fisheries. The most abundant of these species is the Atlantic herring, which comprises over half of all herring capture. Fish called herring are also found in the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, and Bay of Bengal.
Herring played an important role in the history of marine fisheries in Europe,Cushing, David H (1975) Marine ecology and fisheries Cambridge University Press. . and early in the 20th century, their study was fundamental to the development of fisheries science.Went, AEJ (1972) "The History of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Section B. Biology, 73: 351–360. These oily fish also have a long history as an important food fish, and are often salted fish, smoked fish, or Pickled herring.
Herring were also known as "silver darlings" in the United Kingdom.
The type genus of the herring family Clupeidae is Clupea.Pauly, Daniel (2004) Darwin's Fishes: An Encyclopedia of Ichthyology, Ecology, and Evolution Page 109, Cambridge University Press. . Clupea contains only two species: the Atlantic herring (the type species) found in the North Atlantic, and the Pacific herring mainly found in the North Pacific. Subspecies divisions have been suggested for both the Atlantic and Pacific herrings, but their biological basis remains unclear.
| Atlantic herring | Clupea harengus Linnaeus, 1758 | 45.0 cm | 30.0 cm | 1.05 kg | 22 years | 3.23 | Clupea harengus (Linnaeus, 1758) FAO, Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved April 2012. | Least concern | ||
| Pacific herring | Clupea pallasii Valenciennes, 1847 | 46.0 cm | 25.0 cm | 19 years | 3.15 | Clupea pallasii (Valenciennes, 1847) FAO, Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved April 2012. | Data deficient |
In addition, a number of related species, all in the Clupeidae, are commonly referred to as herrings. The table immediately below includes those members of the family Clupeidae referred to by FishBase as herrings which have been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
| Pellonulinae | Toothed river herring | Clupeoides papuensis (Ramsay & Ogilby, 1886) | cm | cm | kg | years | Data deficient | ||||
| Dussumieriinae | Day's round herring | Dayella malabarica (Day, 1873) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | ||||
| Dwarf round herring | Jenkinsia lamprotaenia (Gosse, 1851) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Gilchrist's round herring | Gilchristella aestuaria (Gilchrist, 1913) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Little-eye round herring | Jenkinsia majua Whitehead, 1963 | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Red-eye round herring | Etrumeus sadina (Mitchill, 1814) | 33 cm | 25 cm | kg | years | Etrumeus teres (De Kay, 1842) FAO, Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved 25 March 2024. | Least concern | ||||
| Two-finned round herring | Spratellomorpha bianalis (Bertin, 1940) | 4.5 cm | cm | kg | years | 3.11 | Data deficient | ||||
| Whitehead's round herring | Etrumeus whiteheadi (Wongratana, 1983) | 20 cm | cm | kg | years | 3.4 | Etrumeus whiteheadi (Wongratana, 1983) FAO, Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved April 2012. | Least concern | |||
| Venezuelan herring | Jenkinsia parvula Cervigón and Velasquez, 1978 | cm | cm | kg | years | Vulnerable | |||||
| Opisthonema | Galapagos thread herring | Opisthonema berlangai (Günther, 1867) | 26 cm | 18 cm | kg | years | 3.27 | Vulnerable | |||
| Middling thread herring | Opisthonema medirastre Berry & Barrett, 1963 | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Pacific thread herring | Opisthonema libertate (Günther, 1867) | 30 cm | 22 cm | kg | years | Opisthonema libertate (Günther, 1867) FAO, Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved April 2012. | Least concern | ||||
| Slender thread herring | Opisthonema bulleri (Regan, 1904) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Other | Araucanian herring | Strangomera bentincki (Norman, 1936) | 28.4 cm | cm | kg | years | 2.69 | Clupea bentincki (Norman, 1936) FAO, Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved April 2012. | Least concern | ||
| Blackstripe herring | Lile nigrofasciata Castro-Aguirre Ruiz-Campos and Balart, 2002 | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Denticle herring | Denticeps clupeoides Clausen, 1959 | cm | cm | kg | years | Vulnerable | |||||
| Dogtooth herring | Chirocentrodon bleekerianus (Poey, 1867) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Graceful herring | Lile gracilis Castro-Aguirre and Vivero, 1990 | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Pacific Flatiron herring | Harengula thrissina (Jordan and Gilbert, 1882) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Sanaga pygmy herring | Thrattidion noctivagus Roberts, 1972 | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Silver-stripe round herring | Spratelloides gracilis (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846) | 10.5 cm | cm | kg | years | 3.0 | Least concern | ||||
| Striped herring | Lile stolifera (Jordan & Gilbert, 1882) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| West African pygmy herring | Sierrathrissa leonensis Thys van den Audenaerde, 1969 | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern |
Also, a number of other species are called herrings, which may be related to clupeids or just share some characteristics of herrings (such as the lake herring, which is a salmonid). Just which of these species are called herrings can vary with locality, so what might be called a herring in one locality might be called something else in another locality. Some examples:
| Pristigasteridae | Bigeyed longfin herring | Opisthopterus macrops (Günther, 1867) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | ||||
| Dove's longfin herring | Opisthopterus dovii (Günther 1868) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Hatchet herring | Ilisha fuerthii (Steindachner, 1875) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Panama longfin herring | Odontognathus panamensis (Steindachner, 1876) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Tropical longfin herring | Neoopisthopterus tropicus (Hildebrand 1946) | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Vaqueira longfin herring | Opisthopterus effulgens (Regan 1903) | cm | cm | kg | years | Vulnerable | |||||
| Equatorial longfin herring | Opisthopterus equatorialis Hildebrand, 1946 | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern | |||||
| Chirocentridae | Dorab wolf-herring | Chirocentrus dorab (Forsskål, 1775) | 100 cm | 60 cm | kg | years | 4.50 | Chirocentrus dorab (Forsskål, 1775) FAO, Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved April 2012. | Least concern | ||
| Whitefin wolf-herring | Chirocentrus nudus Swainson, 1839 | 100 cm | cm | 0.41 kg | years | 4.19 | Least concern | ||||
| Freshwater whitefish | Lake herring (cisco) | Coregonus artedi Lesueur, 1818 | cm | cm | kg | years | Least concern |
The eggs sink to the bottom, where they stick in layers or clumps to gravel, seaweed, or stones, by means of their mucous coating, or to any other objects on which they chance to settle.
If the egg layers are too thick they suffer from oxygen depletion and often die, entangled in a maze of mucus. They need substantial water microturbulence, generally provided by wave action or coastal ocean currents. Survival is highest in crevices and behind solid structures, because predators feast on openly exposed eggs. The individual eggs are in diameter, depending on the size of the parent fish and also on the local race. Incubation time is about 40 days at , 15 days at , or 11 days at . Eggs die at temperatures above .
The larvae are long at hatching, with a small yolk sac that is absorbed by the time the larvae reach . Only the eyes are well pigmented. The rest of the body is nearly transparent, virtually invisible under water and in natural lighting conditions.
The dorsal fin forms at , the anal fin at about —the ventral fins are visible and the tail becomes well forked at 30 to — at about , the larva begins to look like a herring.
Herring larvae are very slender and can easily be distinguished from all other young fish of their range by the location of the vent, which lies close to the base of the tail; however, distinguishing Clupeidae one from another in their early stages requires critical examination, especially telling herring from .
At one year, they are about long, and they first spawn at three years.
Herring feed on phytoplankton, and as they mature, they start to consume larger organisms. They also feed on zooplankton, tiny animals found in photic zone, and small fish and fish larvae. Copepods and other tiny crustaceans are the most common zooplankton eaten by herring. During daylight, herring stay in the safety of deep water, feeding at the surface only at night when the chance of being seen by predators is less. They swim along with their mouths open, filtering the plankton from the water as it passes through their gills. Young herring mostly hunt copepods individually, by means of "particulate feeding" or "raptorial feeding",Kils U (1992) The ATOLL Laboratory and other Instruments Developed at Kiel U.S. GLOBEC News, Technology Forum Number 8: 6–9. a feeding method also used by adult herring on larger prey items like krill. If prey concentrations reach very high levels, as in microlayers, at fronts, or directly below the surface, herring become , driving several meters forward with wide open mouth and far expanded opercula, then closing and cleaning the for a few milliseconds.
Copepods, the primary zooplankton, are a major item on the forage fish menu. Copepods are typically long, with a teardrop-shaped body. Some scientists say they form the largest animal biomass on the planet. Biology of Copepods at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg Copepods are very alert and evasive. They have large antennae (see photo below left). When they spread their antennae, they can sense the pressure wave from an approaching fish and jump with great speed over a few centimetres. If copepod concentrations reach high levels, schooling herrings adopt a method called ram feeding. In the photo below, herring ram feed on a school of copepods. They swim with their mouths wide open and their operculae fully expanded.
The fish swim in a grid where the distance between them is the same as the jump length of their prey, as indicated in the animation above right. In the animation, juvenile herring hunt the copepods in this synchronised way. The copepods sense with their antennae the pressure wave of an approaching herring and react with a fast escape jump. The length of the jump is fairly constant. The fish align themselves in a grid with this characteristic jump length. A copepod can dart about 80 times before it tires. After a jump, it takes it 60 milliseconds to spread its antennae again, and this time delay becomes its undoing, as the almost endless stream of herring allows a herring to eventually snap up the copepod. A single juvenile herring could never catch a large copepod.
Other pelagic prey eaten by herring includes fish eggs, larval , by herring larvae below , by larvae below , larvae, menhaden larvae, krill, , smaller fishes, , , Calanus spp., Centropagidae, and Meganyctiphanes norvegica.
Herrings, along with Atlantic cod and sprat, are the most important commercial species to humans in the Baltic Sea.Friedrich W. Köster, et al. "Developing Baltic Cod Recruitment Models. I. Resolving Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Spawning Stock And Recruitment For Cod, Herring, And Sprat." Canadian Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences 58.8 (2001): 1516. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. p. 1516. [13] The analysis of the stomach contents of these fish indicate Atlantic cod is the top predator, preying on the herring and sprat.Maris Plikshs, et al. "Developing Baltic Cod Recruitment Models. I. Resolving Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Spawning Stock And Recruitment For Cod, Herring, And Sprat." Canadian Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences 58.8 (2001): 1516. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Nov. 2011, p.1517 [14] Sprat are competitive with herring for the same food resources. This is evident in the two species' vertical migration in the Baltic Sea, where they compete for the limited zooplankton available and necessary for their survival.Casini, Michele, Cardinale, Massimiliano, and Arrheni, Fredrik. "Feeding preferences of herring (Clupea harengus) and sprat (Sprattus sprattus) in the southern Baltic Sea." ICES Journal of Marine Science, 61 (2004): 1267–1277. Science Direct. Web. 22 November 2011. p. 1268. [15] Sprat are highly selective in their diet and eat only zooplankton, while herring are more eclectic, adjusting their diet as they grow in size. In the Baltic, copepods of the genus Acartia can be present in large numbers. However, they are small in size with a high escape response, so herring and sprat avoid trying to catch them. These copepods also tend to dwell more in surface waters, whereas herring and sprat, especially during the day, tend to dwell in deeper waters.
The predators often cooperate in groups, using different techniques to panic or herd a school of herring into a tight bait ball. Different predatory species then use different techniques to pick the fish off in the bait ball. The sailfish raises its sail to make it appear much larger. Swordfish charge at high speed through the bait balls, slashing with their swords to kill or stun prey. They then turn and return to consume their "catch". use their long tails to stun the shoaling fish. These sharks compact their prey school by swimming around them and splashing the water with their tails, often in pairs or small groups. They then strike them sharply with the upper lobe of their tails to stun them.Seitz, J.C. Pelagic Thresher . Florida Museum of Natural History. Retrieved on December 22, 2008. charge vertically through the school, spinning on their axes with their mouths open and snapping all around. The sharks' momentum at the end of these spiraling runs often carries them into the air.
Some whales lunge feed on bait balls.Reeves RR, Stewart BS, Clapham PJ and Powell J A (2002) National Audubon Society Guide to Marine Mammals of the World Chanticleer Press. . Lunge feeding is an extreme feeding method, where the whale accelerates from below the bait ball to a high velocity and then opens its mouth to a large gape angle. This generates the water pressure required to expand its mouth and engulf and filter a huge amount of water and fish. Lunge feeding by , a family of huge Baleen whale that includes the blue whale, is said to be the largest Biomechanics event on Earth.Potvin J and Goldbogen JA (2009) "Passive versus active engulfment: verdict from trajectory simulations of lunge-feeding fin whales Balaenoptera physalus J. R. Soc. Interface, 6(40): 1005–1025.
Herring are very high in the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. Cardiovascular Benefits Of Omega-3 Fatty Acids Reviewed They are a source of vitamin D.
Water pollution influences the amount of herring that may be safely consumed. For example, large Baltic herring slightly exceeds recommended limits with respect to PCB and dioxin, although some sources point out that the cancer-reducing effect of omega-3 fatty acids is statistically stronger than the effect of PCBs and dioxins. Risks and benefits are clarified by food risk assessment – Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira The contaminant levels depend on the age of the fish which can be inferred from their size. Baltic herrings larger than may be eaten twice a month, while herrings smaller than 17 cm can be eaten freely. Dietary advice on fish consumption – Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira Mercury in fish also influences the amount of fish that women who are pregnant or planning to be pregnant within the next one or two years may safely eat.
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