Clupeiformes is the order of ray-finned fish that includes the herring family, Clupeidae, and the anchovy family, Engraulidae. The group includes many of the most important forage and food fish.
Herring are various species of forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae.
Brandt's cormorant is a strictly marine bird of the cormorant family of seabirds that inhabits the Pacific coast of North America. It ranges, in the summer, from Alaska to the Gulf of California, but the population north of Vancouver Island migrates south during the winter. Its specific name, penicillatus is Latin for a painter's brush, in reference to white plumes on its neck and back during the early breeding season. The common name honors the German naturalist Johann Friedrich von Brandt of the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, who described the species from specimens collected on expeditions to the Pacific during the early 19th century.
Audouin's gull is a large gull restricted to the Mediterranean and the western coast of Saharan Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ikhthus, "fish", and aetos, "eagle", and the specific audouinii and the English name are after the French naturalist Jean Victoire Audouin.
Ethmidium is a monospecific genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Clupeidae, the herrings and sprats. The only species in the genus is Ethmidium maculatum, the Pacific menhaden, a species found along the Pacific coast of South America off Peru and Chile.
The denticle herring is a small, up to 15 cm (5.9 in) long, species of ray-finned fish found only in the rivers of Benin, Nigeria, and western Cameroon. It is related to the herrings, but notable for its large anal fin and its array of denticle-like scales under the head, which give it almost a furry appearance.
Sardine and pilchard are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring suborder Clupeoidei. The term 'sardine' was first used in English during the early 15th century; a somewhat dubious etymology says it comes from the Italian island of Sardinia, around which sardines were once supposedly abundant.
Sprat is the common name applied to a group of forage fish belonging to the genus Sprattus in the family Clupeidae. The term also is applied to a number of other small sprat-like forage fish. Like most forage fishes, sprats are highly active, small, oily fish. They travel in large schools with other fish and swim continuously throughout the day.
The herring scad, is a common species of tropical marine fish in the jack family Carangidae. The species inhabits the surface waters of coastal regions throughout the Indo-West Pacific region, feeding on a variety of crustaceans and small fishes. It is the largest fish of the scad genus Alepes, growing to a recorded length of 56 cm. The herring scad is identified among the genus Alepes by its more numerous and smaller scutes and the number of gill rakers on the first arch. It is of minor importance to fisheries throughout its range.
Alosa caspia is a species of alosid fish, one of the species of shad endemic to the Caspian Sea basin.
An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water.
The dogtooth herring is a species of herring occurring in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean along the coast of northern South America, Central America and the Caribbean islands. It is the only species in its genus. They are commonly around 3.5 inches in length.
Raconda is a monospecific genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Pristigasteridae, the longfin herrings. The only species in the genus is Raconda russeliana, the raconda, a species found in the eastern Indian Ocean and far western Pacific Ocean.
The West African pygmy herring is a very small fish, reaching a maximum length of 3 centimetres (1.2 in) SL. It is a member of the herring family Dorosomatidae in the freshwater systems of western and central Africa that includes such species as the Microthrissa royauxi of the Congo River basin and Limnothrissa miodon of Lake Tanganyika. It is the only species of its genus.
Clupea is genus of planktivorous bony fish belonging to the family Clupeidae, commonly known as herrings. They are found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Two main species of Clupea are currently recognized: the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring, which have each been divided into subspecies. Herrings are forage fish moving in vast schools, coming in spring to the shores of Europe and America, where they form important commercial fisheries.
The dorab wolf-herring is a fish species from the genus Chirocentrus of the family Chirocentridae. It is a coastal fish, silvery below and bright blue above. It is found in both marine and brackish or estuarine waters, feeding on smaller fish and possibly crustaceans. Chirocentrus is from the Greek cheir meaning hand and kentron meaning sting. Dorab is from the Arabic language word darrab (ضرّاب) and the word is probably a corrupted form of durubb (دُرُبّ) the name for goldfish in Arabic. It has another Arabic name, lisan (لسان) which means tongue.
Amblygaster leiogaster, the smoothbelly sardinella, also known as blue sardine, blue sprat, bluebait, is a reef-associated marine species of sardinella in the herring family Clupeidae. It is one of the three species of genus Amblygaster. It is found in the marine waters along Indo-West Pacific regions south towards western Australia. The fish has 13 to 21 dorsal soft rays and 12 to 23 anal soft rays. It grows up to a maximum length of 23 cm. The flank is gold in fresh fish but becomes black while preservation. Belly is more rounded and scutes are not prominent. It is rather closely resemble Amblygaster clupeoides, but the latter has very few lower gill rakers than smoothbelly sardinella. The fish feeds on minute organisms like zooplankton.
The blackstripe herring is a species of tropical sardine found in the Tropical Eastern Pacific, first documented in a coastal lagoon near Sonora, Mexico. Its diet consists of pelagic crustaceans, zooplankton, fish larvae, and fish eggs. It is typically found in muddy or sandy shores and high-salinity estuaries at depths of 0–10 meters.
Etrumeus whiteheadi, Whitehead's round herring, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Dussumieriidae, the round herrings. This species is found in the southeastern Atlantic Ocean and the southwestern Indian Ocean around the coasts of Namibia and South Africa. This species is an important target for fisheries in Namibia and South Africa.
Chirocentrus nudus, the whitefin wolf-herring, is a fish species from the genus Chirocentrus of the family Chirocentridae. It is a coastal fish found in Marine neritic waters feeding mainly on other small fish.
