Clupea pallasii pallasii is not an endangered species. However, with heavy fishing in the 1960s and a lack of recruitment in the 1970s, Atlantic herring fisheries crashed. Although the fishery recovered since then, its vulnerability, especially with increased potential of climate variability has lead the several countries to conduct studies looking at sustainable herring harvests (Alheit and Hagen, 1997).
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
As Atlantic herring are the prey species of many species of fish, mammals, and birds, herring are almost always found in schools (Bigelow and Schoreder, 1953). Some schools display elaborate patterns (Gulf of Maine Aquarium, 2004b). These schools may be quite large, stretching several miles in length and visibly darkening the waters (Jones, 1795).
Clupea pallasii pallasii is a prey species of cod, pollock, haddock, silver hake, striped bass, mackerel, tuna, salmon, dogfish (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953), harbor porpoises Phocoena phocoena, harbor seals Phoca vitulina, gray seals Halichoerus grypus, Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica, razorbills Alca torda, common terns Sterna hirundo, arctic terns Sterna arctica, killer whales, baleen whales (Gulf of Maine Aquarium, 2004b), and humans Homo sapiens.
Known Predators:
Clupea pallasii pallasii grow to about 17 inches (45.72 cm) and can weigh up to 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953; Gulf of Maine Aquarium, 2004d). Atlantic herring stocks in the Baltic Sea have recently seen significant decreases in weight-at-age in all age-classes with larger declines in northern populations than southern populations, and in younger age groups than in older groups (Cardinale and Arrhenius, 2000). The result of this decrease in weight-at-age could be indicative of a change in the average size of all Clupea pallasii pallasii populations, or it may only be a case of Baltic Sea populations.
Clupea pallasii pallasii are laterally compressed, with a moderatly pointed nose, a large mouth at the tip of the snout, and a projecting lower jaw. They have a "saw-toothed keel" belly and a deeply forked tail. The keel is only weakly sawtoothed as compared to other members of its family. The dorsal fin is situated roughly midway down the back, and the abdominal fins are located almost directly below it. There is no adipose fin. The scales are large and loosely attached. The key anatomical difference between Clupea pallasii pallasii and other members of the family is an oval patch of small teeth on the vomer bone at the center of the roof of the mouth (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953).
The body color is of a deep steel blue or greenish blue, with silver sides and belly. Ventral and anal fins are translucent white. The pectorals are dark at their base and along the upper edge. The caudal and dorsal fins are also dark(Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953).
Range mass: 0.68 (high) kg.
Range length: 45.72 (high) cm.
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; heterothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike
Clupea pallasii pallasii may live up to 20 years.
Range lifespan
Status: wild: 20 (high) years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 22.0 years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 19.0 years.
Atlantic herring Clupea pallasii pallasii are found in the palagic zone of marine waters, as well as coastal zones of throughout their geographic reach.
(Note: the maximum depth value given is based on a value of 50 fathoms (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953)).
Range depth: 36.576 to 0 m.
Habitat Regions: saltwater or marine
Aquatic Biomes: pelagic ; coastal
Other Habitat Features: intertidal or littoral
Older references of Atlantic herring indicate that populations may move between different coastal regions after a number of years, disappearing off the coast of Norway, while showing up on the shores of Germany (Buffon, 1793). This process can be explained by climatic forcing of Atlantic herring migration occuring on a decadal cycle (Alheit and Hagen, 1997) as well as fluctuations in spawning caused by switches in recruitment in between northern and southern populations in the North Sea (Corten, 1999).
Clupea pallasii pallasii are closely related to the Pacific herring Clupea pallasii pallasii, which resides mainly in the northern Pacific Ocean. Recent genetic evidence indicates that these two species diverged roughly 1.3 million years ago (Domanico, et al., 1996).
Biogeographic Regions: atlantic ocean (Native )
Other Geographic Terms: holarctic
In the late 1700s, Leeuwenhoek hypothesized that Clupea pallasii pallasii was a plankton feeder, stating that "Seeing these things, I did not wonder that fishermen should imagine Herrings have no food in their stomachs, because Herrings do, in my opinion, feed on such small fishes ["animacules"], that they cannot take in sufficient quantities of them to distend their stomachs, as we see in other fish; and hence it is said, that Herrings have no food in within their stomachs." (Leeuwenhoek, 1798)
With the advent of better microscopes and observational techniques, it was found that plankton (the "animaclues" of Leeuwenhoek's time) that Clupea pallasii pallasii feeds upon, starting with larval snails, diatoms, peridinians when first hatched, moving on to copepods, amphipods, pelagic shrimps, and decapod crustacean larvae when they reach adulthood (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953).
Animal Foods: fish; eggs; mollusks; aquatic or marine worms; aquatic crustaceans; other marine invertebrates; zooplankton
Plant Foods: phytoplankton
Primary Diet: planktivore
Herring are a critical part of the Atlantic ecosystem, being a prey species for a large variety of species. They are pelagic plankton feeders (Gulf of Maine Aquarium, 2004b).
Atlantic herring are also the host of several parasitic species. In a study of 220 Norwegian spring spawning herring, Tolonen and Karlsbakk (2002) detected 11 parasitic species: the coccodians Goussia clupearum and Eimeria sardinae, spores of the myxozoan Ceratomyxa auerbachi, adult trematodes Hemiurus spp., adult and larval nematodes Hysterothylacium aduncum and Anisakis simplex, and Cryptocotyle lingua metacercarial infections.
Herring fisheries in both Europe and North America have been important sources of protein in diets going back centuries. Jones (1795) indicates that the Dutch fishery dates back to 1167, and Alheit and Hagen (1997) indicate the presence of a Swedish fishery dating back to the 10th Century. In North America, the Native Americans were the first ones to use a system of weirs to catch herrings, as they were difficult to catch using the traditional methods of hook or spear (Gulf of Maine Aquarium, 2004).
The love of Atlantic herring as a foodstuff in Britain was well captured by Jones (1795): "Yarmouth has long been famous for its herring [fare], which was regulated by an act in the 31st [year] of Edward the Third: and that town is obliged, by its charter, to send to the sheriffs of Norwich 100 herrings, to be made into twenty-four pies, by them to be delivered to the lord of the manor of East Carleton, who is to convey them to the king."
The Atlantic fishery continues to be a popular, if not a highly economic, one. In 2001, the New England herring fishery had an estimated total value of $15,615,237 in U. S. dollars (Parker, 2003). Similar fisheries are found throughout the range of Clupea pallasii pallasii.
The nutritional information for raw Atlantic herring is: 158 Calories/100g, 17.96g protien/100g, 0.0g carbohydrate/100g, 2.04g saturated fatty acid/100g, 3.736g monosaturated fatty acid/100g, 2.133g polyunsaturated fatty acid/100g
Positive Impacts: food ; research and education
Before large-scale fishing operations started in North America, the vastness of the shoals of Atlantic herring "became absolutely a nuisance" in the Chesapeake Bay area (Buffon, 1793). Clupea pallasii pallasii can be very susceptible to pollution and being beached during large storms. Bigelow and Schoreder (1953) describe a "slaughter of herring" that started in October 5, 1920 and resulted in a tidal harbor becoming completely covered with dead herring. The large anoxic zone resulting from the decomposition of the massive number of dead herring caused even more fish kills.
Clupea pallasii pallasii eggs are laid on rocky to sandy substrate, rarely on mud, from 3.7 m to 54.9 m on the North American side of the Atlantic. In Scandinavia, depths of 182.9 m have been recorded. Fertilization may take place in spring, summer, or autumn, according to locality and subtype of Atlantic herring (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953).
Incubation lasts anywhere from 10 to 40 days, depending on local water temperatures. Colder temperatures (roughly 3.3 deg C) indicate a longer incubtion time. Incubation can take place in water temperatures of up to 15 deg C. Temperature ranges above and below these limits produced no viable hatchings (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953).
At the time of hatching, Clupea pallasii pallasii are about 6 mm long. Their small yolk sack is usually completely absorbed by the time they reach 10 mm in length. At 15 to 17 mm, the dorsal fin forms. The anal fin forms when Atlantic herring reach about 30 mm. Ventral fins become visible at 30 to 35 mm. The tail becomes well-forked at around this length as well. Only when Atlantic herring reach 40 mm do they start to fully resemble mature herring (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953).
At roughly 2 years of age, Clupea harenga are about 19 to 20.5 cm in length, and start to accumulate large amounts of fat in the body tissue and viscera during warm months. This fat is lost in the winter and at the approach of sexual maturity (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953).
Although little is known of the behavioral reasons behind their noise productions, Clupea pallasii pallasii are known to produce and perceive sounds. Noise is usually produced at night by is probably the result of forceful ejection of air from the anal duct. The frequency of noise production did not change due to feeding. This noise production tends to increase with increasing numbers of herring in a school, leading to speculation that there is a social component to noise production (Wilson, Batty, and Dill, 2003).
Communication Channels: acoustic
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
The following is a late 18th Century English recipe for herring pie, perhaps similar to the one required of the city of Yarmouth in its city charter. The author of this taxon account adds this recipe ONLY as proof that herring have been used in a variety of different foodstuffs for some time throughout history, and NOT as a suggestion for any future meal.
"A HERRING PYE: Scale, gut, and wash them very clean, cut off the heads, fins, and tails; make a good crust, cover your dish, then season your herrings with beaten mace, pepper and salt; put a little butter in the bottom of your dish, then a row of herrings; pare some apples, and cut them in thin slices all over, then peel some onions, and cut them in slices all over thick, lay a little butter on the top, put in a little water, lay on the lid, and bake it well." (Gellory, 1762)
Atlantic herring aggregate into massive schools in the late summer and early fall. In the western Atlantic, they move into coastal waters at various locations in the Gulf of Maine and offshore banks of Nova Scotia to spawn. Spawning times vary for different populations of Atlantic herring.
Mating System: polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Clupea pallasii pallasii uses external fertilization of eggs. As female herring release eggs, male herring release clouds of milt simultaneously. Herring are fat prior to spawning, after months of eating plankton blooms.
Mature eggs make up a large portion (20%+) of the female's body weight. The fecundity of herring females is typically in the range of 20,000-50,000 eggs per female, although a large female herring can lay as many as 200,000 eggs. Herring are iteroparous and generally live to spawn repeatedly for several years. After spawning, their weight declines with the loss of gametes and associated fat content.
Breeding interval: Atlantic herring usually spawn after reaching 25.5cm.
Breeding season: Atlantic herring may spawn in spring, summer, or autmn, depending on local conditions and the subspecies of herring.
Range number of offspring: 200000 (high) .
Average number of offspring: 20000-50000.
Range gestation period: 10 to 40 days.
Average gestation period: 11 days.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 3 to 6 years.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 4 years.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 3 to 6 years.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 4 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; year-round breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization (External ); broadcast (group) spawning; oviparous
There is no evidence that Atlantic herring invest any energies toward parenting after they spawn.
Parental Investment: pre-fertilization (Provisioning)
Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) is a herring in the family Clupeidae. It is one of the most abundant fish species in the world. Atlantic herrings can be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, congregating in large schools. They can grow up to 45 centimetres (18 in) in length and weigh up to 1.1 kilograms (2.4 lb). They feed on copepods, krill and small fish, while their natural predators are seals, whales, cod and other larger fish.
The Atlantic herring fishery has long been an important part of the economy of New England and the Atlantic provinces of Canada. This is because the fish congregate relatively near to the coast in massive schools, notably in the cold waters of the semi-enclosed Gulf of Maine and Gulf of St. Lawrence. North Atlantic herring schools have been measured up to 4 cubic kilometres (0.96 cu mi) in size, containing an estimated four billion fish.
Atlantic herring have a fusiform body. Gill rakers in their mouths filter incoming water, trapping any zooplankton and phytoplankton.
Atlantic herring are in general fragile. They have large and delicate gill surfaces, and contact with foreign matter can strip away their large scales.
They have retreated from many estuaries worldwide due to excess water pollution although in some estuaries that have been cleaned up, herring have returned. The presence of their larvae indicates cleaner and more–oxygenated waters.
Atlantic herring can be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. They range, shoaling and schooling across North Atlantic waters such as the Gulf of Maine, the Gulf of St Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy, the Labrador Sea, the Davis Straits, the Beaufort Sea, the Denmark Strait, the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea, the Skagerrak, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea, the Bay of Biscay and Sea of the Hebrides.[1] Although Atlantic herring are found in the northern waters surrounding the Arctic, they are not considered to be an Arctic species.
The small-sized herring in the inner parts of the Baltic Sea, which is also less fatty than the true Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus harengus), is considered a distinct subspecies, "Baltic herring" (Clupea harengus membras), despite the lack of a distinctive genome. The Baltic herring has a specific name in many local languages (Swedish strömming, Finnish silakka, Estonian räim, silk, Livonian siļk, Russian салака, Polish śledź bałtycki, Latvian reņģes, Lithuanian strimelė) and is popularly and in cuisine considered distinct from herring. For example, the Swedish dish surströmming is made from Baltic herring.
Fisheries for Baltic herring have been at unsustainable levels since the Middle Ages. Around this time, the primary Baltic herring catch consisted of an autumn-spawning population. Cooling in the mid-16th century related to the Little Ice Age, combined with this overfishing, led to a dramatic loss of productivity in the population of autumn-spawning herring that rendered it nearly extinct. Due to this, the autumn-spawning herring were largely replaced by a spring-spawning population, which has since comprised most of the Baltic herring fisheries; this population is also at risk of overfishing.[2]
Herrings reach sexual maturity when they are 3 to 5 years old. The life expectancy once mature is 12 to 16 years. Atlantic herring may have different spawning components within a single stock which spawn during different seasons. They spawn in estuaries, coastal waters or in offshore banks. Fertilization is external like with most other fish, the female releases between 20,000 and 40,000 eggs and the males simultaneously release masses of milt so that they mix freely in the sea. Once fertilized the 1 to 1.4 mm diameter eggs sinks to the sea bed where its sticky surface adheres to gravel or weed and will mature in 1–3 weeks, in 14-19 °C water it takes 6–8 days, in 7,5 °C it takes 17 days.[3] It will only mature if its temperature stays below 19 °C. The hatched larvae are 3 to 4 mm long and transparent except for the eyes which have some pigmentation.[4]
Herrings are most seen in the North Atlantic Ocean, from the coast of South Carolina until Greenland, and from the Baltic Sea until Novaya Zemlya. In the North Sea people can distinguish four different main populations. The different herring families are spawning in different periods:
These four populations live outside of the spawn season interchangeably. In their spawn season, each population gathers together on their own spawn grounds.
In the past, there was another, fifth distinct population, the Zuiderzee herring, which spawned in the former Zuiderzee. This population disappeared when the Zuiderzee was drained by the Dutch as part of the larger Zuiderzee Works.
Herring-like fish are the most important fish group on the planet. They are also the most populous fish.[5] They are the dominant converter of zooplankton into fish, consuming copepods, arrow worms chaetognatha, pelagic amphipods hyperiidae, mysids and krill in the pelagic zone. Conversely, they are a central prey item or forage fish for higher trophic levels. The reasons for this success are still enigmatic; one speculation attributes their dominance to the huge, extremely fast cruising schools they inhabit.
Orca, cod, dolphins, porpoises, sharks, rockfish, seabirds, whales, squid, sea lions, seals, tuna, salmon, and fishermen are among the predators of these fishes.
Herring's pelagic–prey includes copepods (e.g. Centropagidae, Calanus spp., Acartia spp., Temora spp.), amphipods like Hyperia spp., larval snails, diatoms by larvae below 20 millimetres (0.79 in), peridinians, molluscan larvae, fish eggs, krill like Meganyctiphanes norvegica, mysids, small fishes, menhaden larvae, pteropods, annelids, tintinnids by larvae below 45 millimetres (1.8 in), Haplosphaera, Pseudocalanus.
Atlantic herring can school in immense numbers. Radakov estimated herring schools in the North Atlantic can occupy up to 4.8 cubic kilometres with fish densities between 0.5 and 1.0 fish/cubic metre, equivalent to several billion fish in one school.[6]
Herring are amongst the most spectacular schoolers ("obligate schoolers" under older terminology). They aggregate in groups that consist of thousands to hundreds of thousands or even millions of individuals. The schools traverse the open oceans.
Schools have a very precise spatial arrangement that allows the school to maintain a relatively constant cruising speed. Schools from an individual stock generally travel in a triangular pattern between their spawning grounds, e.g. Southern Norway, their feeding grounds (Iceland) and their nursery grounds (Northern Norway). Such wide triangular journeys are probably important because feeding herrings cannot distinguish their own offspring. They have excellent hearing, and a school can react very quickly to evade predators. Herring schools keep a certain distance from a moving scuba diver or a cruising predator like a killer whale, forming a vacuole which looks like a doughnut from a spotter plane.[7] The phenomenon of schooling is far from understood, especially the implications on swimming and feeding-energetics. Many hypotheses have been put forward to explain the function of schooling, such as predator confusion, reduced risk of being found, better orientation, and synchronized hunting. However, schooling has disadvantages such as: oxygen- and food-depletion and excretion buildup in the breathing media. The school-array probably gives advantages in energy saving although this is a highly controversial and much debated field.
Schools of herring can on calm days sometimes be detected at the surface from more than a mile away by the little waves they form, or from a few meters at night when they trigger bioluminescence in surrounding plankton ("firing"). All underwater recordings show herring constantly cruising reaching speeds up to 108 centimetres (43 in) per second, and much higher escape speeds.
The Atlantic herring fishery is managed by multiple organizations that work together on the rules and regulations applying to herring. As of 2010 the species was not threatened by overfishing.[9]
They are an important bait fish for recreational fishermen.[10]
Because of their feeding habits, cruising desire, collective behavior and fragility they survive in very few aquaria worldwide despite their abundance in the ocean. Even the best facilities leave them slim and slow compared to healthy wild schools.
Clupea harengus in a barrel Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) is a herring in the family Clupeidae. It is one of the most abundant fish species in the world. Atlantic herrings can be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, congregating in large schools. They can grow up to 45 centimetres (18 in) in length and weigh up to 1.1 kilograms (2.4 lb). They feed on copepods, krill and small fish, while their natural predators are seals, whales, cod and other larger fish.
The Atlantic herring fishery has long been an important part of the economy of New England and the Atlantic provinces of Canada. This is because the fish congregate relatively near to the coast in massive schools, notably in the cold waters of the semi-enclosed Gulf of Maine and Gulf of St. Lawrence. North Atlantic herring schools have been measured up to 4 cubic kilometres (0.96 cu mi) in size, containing an estimated four billion fish.
