Clupeoid Fish

Appears in

#98Mediterranean Seafood
Mediterranean Seafood

By Alan Davidson

Published 1981

  • About

In the order Clupeiformes we examine the important family Clupeidae. This is the family of the herring, sprat, shad, pilchard and sardine. The herring, so familiar in Britain and North America, is not a Mediterranean fish (although a species of shad found in the Black and Azov Seas is called ‘herring’ in Russian); but all the others are. So is the anchovy, which belongs to the family Engraulidae.

The clupeoid fish constitute one of the most important groups, from the economic point of view, in the world. They are numerous and heavily fished. They are all pelagic fish, and typically move around in great shoals. They are delicate fish, and their flesh has a relatively high fat content.