About Herrings and Anchovies
Small, schooling, filter-feeding fishes central to marine food webs and fisheries.
Clupeiformes are the herrings, sardines, shads, and anchovies (Clupeidae, Engraulidae) — small, silvery, schooling fishes of coastal and open waters.
Morphology. Streamlined, soft-rayed, with a single soft dorsal fin, a forked caudal fin, and a row of scutes (keeled scales) along the belly in many. They filter-feed on plankton with gill rakers.
Habitat & distribution. Coastal and epipelagic waters of all oceans; some (shads, river herring) are anadromous, spawning in rivers.
Human significance. Clupeids support some of the largest fisheries on Earth (sardine, herring, menhaden, anchovy) and are cornerstone prey for seabirds, marine mammals, and larger fishes.
