Herring

Family Clupeidae

• Spanish: Arenque
• French: Hareng
• Dutch: Haring
• German: Hering
• Polish: Sledź
• Russian: Sel’d’
• Finnish: Silli, Silakka
• Swedish: Sill
• Norwegian: Sild
• Danish: Sild
• Icelandic: Síld, Hafsíld
• Other: Scadán (Irish); Ysgadenyn, Pennog (Welsh); Ammassassuaq (Greenlandic); Sild (Faeroese)

REMARKS Maximum length 40 cm, but the usual adult length is about 20 to 25 cm. The back is dark blue, shading to silvery white below, sometimes with golden or reddish tints.

The species is distributed right across the North Atlantic, down to the north of France on one side and Chesapeake Bay on the other, but may be divided into different races or populations which belong to different areas and exhibit minor variations. One such race, the Baltic herring, seems to me to deserve separate treatment and is described.