119 articles
Clupea harengus
Clupea harengus, the Atlantic herring, is a small schooling pelagic Clupeidae fish of both North Atlantic coasts, from Labrador to Cape Hatteras and Norway to Bay of Biscay; a major forage and bait species, currently overfished in US waters but not subject to overfishing.
Clupeidae
Clupeidae (herrings, shads, sardines, menhadens) is a family of Clupeiformes, small schooling plankton-feeding fishes 2-75 cm, mostly tropical marine, commercially among the most important fish families; molecular phylogenies show the traditional family is not monophyletic.
Clupeiformes
Clupeiformes: order of ray-finned fishes, the herrings, anchovies, sardines, and shads; about 443 species in ten families, worldwide except Antarctica, with major fisheries and repeated diadromy origins.
Cobia
Cobia (Rachycentron canadum), also called ling or crabeater, the sole species of family Rachycentridae, a fast-growing cosmopolitan pelagic gamefish and farmed food fish reaching 6 feet, absent from the central and eastern Pacific.
Cololabis saira
Cololabis saira, the Pacific saury (Japanese sanma, サンマ), is a small pelagic fish of the North Pacific from Japan to the Gulf of Alaska, fished mainly by stick-held dip net and managed by the NPFC; the stock is overfished, with a 2025 catch limit of 202,500 metric tons.
Coryphaenoides rupestris
The roundnose grenadier, Coryphaenoides rupestris, is a rattail fish of the North Atlantic's continental slopes, target of a deep-water trawl fishery that peaked at almost 84,000 t in 1971.
Dorosoma cepedianum
Dorosoma cepedianum, the American gizzard shad (also gizzard shad, skipjack, hickory shad), is a North American clupeid fish of the family Dorosomatidae, a filter-feeding planktivore with over 400 gill rakers, ~300,000 eggs per female, and IUCN Least Concern status.
Dorosoma petenense
Dorosoma petenense, threadfin shad (sardina maya), a small schooling clupeiform fish native to Gulf of Mexico drainages from Florida to Guatemala, widely stocked as forage; cold-sensitive, filter-feeding planktivore.
Eleutheronema tetradactylum
Eleutheronema tetradactylum, the fourfinger threadfin or Indian salmon, is an Indo-West Pacific polynemid fish with four pectoral filaments, protandrous hermaphroditism, high commercial value in fisheries and aquaculture, and a 2025 near-telomere-to-telomere genome assembly.
Engraulidae
Engraulidae (anchovies; anchois, anchoas) is the anchovy family of ray-finned fishes in order Clupeiformes, suborder Clupeoidei, with two subfamilies, Coilinae and Engraulinae, 17 genera, and 141 species, mostly marine plankton feeders.
Engraulis anchoita
Engraulis anchoita (anchoita, Argentine anchovy), Hubbs & Marini 1935, a small pelagic Engraulidae fish from 20°S Brazil to 48°S Argentina; three stocks, IUCN Least Concern, fished mainly in Argentina.
Engraulis japonicus
Engraulis japonicus, the Japanese anchovy, is a small Northwest Pacific clupeiform fish of Engraulidae, described by Temminck & Schlegel in 1846, with 26–30 lower gill rakers, temperature-dependent spawning near 15 °C, and major fisheries in Japan, Korea, and China.
Engraulis mordax
Engraulis mordax, the northern anchovy (also North Pacific or California anchovy), is a small schooling forage fish from British Columbia to Baja California; IUCN Least Concern, boom-and-bust populations, US central subpopulation ACL 25,000 mt.
Epigonus telescopus
Epigonus telescopus (Risso, 1810), the black cardinal fish or telescope cardinal, is a deepwater cardinalfish (Epigonidae) of temperate Atlantic, Indian, and Southwest Pacific slopes, reaching 75 cm, living 104 years, at 75–1,305 m, IUCN Least Concern.
Escolar
Escolar (Lepidocybium flavobrunneum, aburasokomutsu) is a deep-sea snake mackerel sold as white tuna; about 20% of its body weight is indigestible wax esters causing keriorrhea, and its sale is banned in Japan and Italy.
Ethmalosa fimbriata
Ethmalosa fimbriata, the bonga shad (basionym Clupea fimbriata), is a West African euryhaline clupeid from Western Sahara to Angola, estuary-dependent, a diatom filter feeder, and the basis of major artisanal fisheries.
European sprat
European sprat (Sprattus sprattus, formerly Clupea sprattus), a small clupeid fish of the Northeast Atlantic, Baltic, Mediterranean, and Black Sea; max 25.1 cm, spawns 6,000–14,000 pelagic eggs, sold as brislings and used for fishmeal.
Euthynnus affinis
Euthynnus affinis, kawakawa or eastern little tuna (Cantor, 1849), an Indo-West Pacific neritic tuna of Scombridae; 18-29 degrees C, max ~100 cm, ~150,000 t/yr Indian Ocean catch, synonym Euthynnus yaito.
Fangtooth
Fangtooth (Anoplogaster cornuta, common fangtooth, ogrefish), a small bathypelagic fish of Anoplogastridae found worldwide in tropical to temperate seas, with the largest teeth relative to body size of any fish, living at 500–2,000 m depth.
Flying fish
Flying fish (Exocoetidae), about 50 Beloniformes species, glide over the sea on wing-like pectoral fins to escape predators; studied aerodynamically, first molecular phylogeny 2011, managed Caribbean fishery.
Gadella maraldi
Gadella maraldi (gadella) is a morid cod (Gadiformes, Moridae) of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean upper slope, 30 cm max length, 150–900 m depth, IUCN Least Concern, minor commercial use.
Giant oarfish
The giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne), also called king of herrings, is a deep-sea ribbon-shaped fish, the longest bony fish alive, documented to 8 m (26 ft) and found worldwide.
Giant trevally
The giant trevally (Caranx ignobilis) is a large marine fish of the jack family Carangidae, widespread in the tropical Indo-Pacific and popular as a commercial fish and gamefish.
Gonostomatidae
Gonostomatidae (bristlemouths, portholefishes) is a family of small bioluminescent mesopelagic marine fishes in Stomiiformes; Cyclothone is among the most abundant vertebrate genera, and recent phylogenies revise its family limits.
Hemiramphus brasiliensis
Hemiramphus brasiliensis, the ballyhoo halfbeak (formerly Esox brasiliensis), is a schooling Atlantic halfbeak fish used mainly as bait for sailfish and marlin; IUCN Least Concern, matures near 20 cm.
Herring
Herring (Clupea harengus, C. pallasii, C. harengus membras): small silvery schooling Clupeidae forage fish of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, historic staple of European fisheries, now managed under stock assessments; Atlantic herring overfished per 2024 assessment.
Hoplostethus mediterraneus
Hoplostethus mediterraneus, the Mediterranean slimehead or silver roughy (Cuvier, 1829), a benthopelagic Trachichthyidae fish of 100–1,463 m depth, circumtropical, IUCN Least Concern, trawl bycatch, lifespan about 11 years.
Kajikia audax
Kajikia audax, the striped marlin (formerly Tetrapturus audax), an Indo-Pacific billfish of family Istiophoridae; up to 420 cm and 440 kg, epipelagic at 20-25°C, sashimi-valued, IUCN Least Concern but several regional stocks overfished.
King mackerel
King mackerel (Scomberomorus cavalla), also called cavalla or sierra, is a large western Atlantic coastal pelagic fish reaching 5.5 feet and 100 pounds, managed as Gulf and South Atlantic U.S. stocks and high in mercury (0.73 ppm).
Lanternfish
Lanternfish (Myctophidae), about 250 species of small bioluminescent mesopelagic fishes with species-specific photophores, dominate the ocean twilight zone, migrate vertically nightly, and anchor global mesopelagic biomass estimates.