More On How To Identify Herring
Herring Biology: What is a herring? | |||||||||||||||||
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There are several species of fish in the herring family.
Typically, herring are small, streamlined, schooling "planktivores," or
plankton-feeders. The nearly 200 true herring species in the family Clupeidae
share several distinguishing characteristics. Herring are silvery fish with a
single dorsal fin, no lateral line, and a protruding, bulldog-like lower
jaw.
Their pelvic fins are situated on their abdomen well to the rear
of their pectoral fins. Unlike many other fish, true herring have soft fins that
lack spines, although some have pointed scales that form a saw-toothed "keel"
running along the belly.
Streamlined for swimming, the herring body is relatively deep and
flattened laterally (side-to-side), with a distinctly forked tail (caudal fin).
Turn an Atlantic herring sideways and you could probably slide it under your
closet door. The compressed body and silvery scales serve as camouflage in the
open waters of the ocean, scattering light and helping to conceal herring from
predators attacking from the deep. [1]
Silvery scales, however, are of no help during attacks from above.
Even in murky water, the flashing of silver alerts fishermen to the herring's
presence. Anglers searching for tarpon, a tropical herring-like fish, scan the
water for that distinctive silver flank and single dorsal fin breaking the
surface. The long, slender, highly-prized tropical Tarpon is herring-like in
appearance but weighs over one hundred and sixty times more than an average
Atlantic herring and can grow almost 80 inches longer, up to eight feet in
length.
In general, species of the herring family are characterized by
large spawning migrations, with schools of fish traveling round trip distances
of up to 3000 km. [2] Within
the boundaries of these common traits, the many species of the herring family
are actually quite distinct from one another in terms of size, appearance,
behavior, and distribution.
The Atlantic herring is a relatively small fish that schools in
waters of northern latitudes, filtering plankton from the water. In contrast,
the tropical wolf herring grows up to a meter in length and is a voracious
predator of fish, including other herring species.
In other cases there are subtler differences between herring
species. Bluebacks (Alosa aestivalis) and alewives (Alosa
pseudoharengus), for example, are so uniform in size and appearance that
even experienced fishermen have difficulty telling them apart. In fact, it is
almost impossible to distinguish these two fish without the aid of a dissecting
knife.
In some cases, the range, natural history, and behavior can be
unique to a single species, making its identification a simple matter. If you
stand at the river flowing out of Damarascotta Lake in mid-coast Maine in May,
you will see thousands of fish traveling upstream from the Great Salt Bay. No
need for a dissecting knife in Damariscotta. The journeying fish are alewives
faithfully completing their annual spawning migrations.
For the most part, herring in the Gulf of Maine are similar in
appearance. Upon closer examination, there are some notable differences among
these species; for example, the narrow Atlantic round herring is 1/6 deep as
long while the deep-bodied Hickory shad can be 1/3 deep as it is long. [3] Some are entirely marine
species while others are anadromous river herring. In total, there are nine
herring species in the Gulf, including the commonly found Atlantic herring,
blueback herring, alewife, American shad, and Atlantic menhaden. Less common are
the Atlantic thread herring, round herring and hickory shad. Gizzard shad have
invaded some rivers and possibly estuaries in the Gulf of Maine region.
According to Bigelow and Schroeder, co-authors of Fishes
of the Gulf of Maine, hickory shad were at one time caught in a number
of rivers in the Gulf of Maine, which is the northern extreme of their
range.
Atlantic menhaden migrate north from the Mid-Atlantic states in
the summer and, in some years, are very abundant in the Gulf of Maine. Schools
of menhaden can be so abundant that when they crowd into warm, shallow, inshore
waters, or are forced in by predatory bluefish, they use up all the oxygen in
the water and die. The last time this happened in Maine was in the early
1990's.
In the North Pacific Ocean the Pacific herring, Clupea
pallasii, closely resembles our Atlantic species, Clupea harengus.
While morphologically similar, there are some differences in their life
histories. Atlantic herring spawn in the spring and fall whereas Pacific herring
are strictly spring spawners. Pallasii is the Latinized last name of
Petrus Simon Pallas, a Russian naturalist and explorer who first described the
Pacific species during his travels in the North Pacific.
The Atlantic Herring (Clupea
harengus)
The Atlantic herring is a small, pelagic plankton-feeder that
grows to a maximum of 17 inches and 1.5 pounds. Distinguishing characteristics
include a dorsal fin located midway along the body and a weak saw-toothed keel
along the belly. The fish is iridescent, greenish or grayish blue dorsally with
a silvery abdomen and sides. The "pearl essence" of the scales was extracted by
the Englehard Corporation of Eastport, Maine for use as a pigment in cosmetics
and paints.
This type of coloration ("countershading") is common in pelagic
species of fish, as it provides a degree of camouflage in open waters. If viewed
at close range, the Atlantic herring can be positively identified by its
conspicuous cluster of small teeth arranged in an oval shape on the roof of its
mouth. No other herring species possesses this distinctive circle of teeth.
What distinguishes Atlantic herring from all other herring and, in
fact, all other fish species in the Gulf of Maine, is their great abundance.
Linneaeus (the father of modern classification) referred to the herring as
"copiosissimus piscis," or, in other words, the most prolific of fish. [4] Count the individual fish in
the Gulf of Maine - (a task akin to counting the ants in Portland, Maine) - and
the Atlantic herring vastly outnumbers the other species.
Herring are pelagic, fish that inhabit the open sea and offshore
banks for most of their lives. Young juveniles ("brit") are numerous in inshore
waters along the Maine coast in the spring and summer. Adults migrate across
hundreds of miles of ocean during their life span. In the winter, schools of
migrating Atlantic herring can join forces, forming massive expanses of fish as
far as the eye can see. In the North Atlantic, people have observed herring
schools measuring up to 4.5 billion cubic meters (over 4 cubic kilometers) in
volume, with densities of up to 1 fish per cubic meter. [5]
In a wonderful passage from Fishes of the Gulf of Maine, Bigelow and Schroeder provide
perspective on the historical abundance of Atlantic herring.
"To list the localities where herring have been recorded
would be to mention every hamlet along our coasts whence fishing boats put out,
for more or less herring, large or small, appear at one season or another around
the entire coast line of the Gulf of Maine, and on the offshore fishing banks as
well." [6]
Due to their great abundance, the Atlantic herring became one of
the most important and sought after fish species in the Gulf of Maine. They
still are.
References:
[1] Moyle,
P.B. and J.J. Cech. (1992) Fishes, An introduction to Ichthyology, 2nd
Edition. Prentice Hall, New Jersey. 559 pp.
[2] Waller,
G., Ed. (1996) SeaLife: A complete guide to the marine environment.
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. 504 pp.
[3] Collette,
B.B. and G. Klein-MacPhee, eds. (2002) Bigelow and Shroeder's Fishes of the
Gulf of Maine. A complete guide to the marine environment. Smithsonian
Institution Press, Washington, D.C. 748 pp.
[4]
Stephenson, R.L. (2001) The role of herring investigations in shaping fisheries
science. Herring: Expectations for a New Millenium. Alaska Sea Grant
College Program. AK-SG-01-04.
[5] Radakov,
DV. (1972) Schooling in the ecology of fish. Wiley, New York. 173 pp.
[6] Bigelow,
H. B. and W. C. Schroeder. (1953) Fishes of the Gulf of Maine. Fishery
Bulletin Of The Fish and Wildlife Service. 53:1-557 pp.
This page was last updated on 04/13/2013 23:54:18, © Gulf of Maine Research Institute | ||||||||||||||||
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herring - valuable flesh of fatty fish from shallow waters of
northern Atlantic or Pacific; usually salted or pickled
