Sardine (young), Pilchard (adult)

The sardine or pilchard has a green back, yellow sides and a silver belly. Its range is from the Mediterranean to the southern coasts of England and Ireland; and sometimes further north, in warm weather. The northern populations seem to mature later, grow larger and live longer than the southern ones. This helps to explain why the fishery for the sardine, the young of this species, is important in Portugal, Spain and France, but not in Britain, where there is, however, a small fishery for the adult pilchard.