Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) is a saltwater, brackish species recorded in the United States. It is found at depths of 0–364 m.
Scientific name: Clupea harengus · Water: Saltwater, Brackish
Size: up to 45 cm
The Atlantic herring is a clupeid that schools, moving between spawning grounds in coastal areas and feeding grounds in open water by following migration patterns learned from earlier year classes. Juveniles up to two years old shoal close inshore while adults are found further offshore, spending the day in deeper water and rising into shallower water at night, with light an important factor in controlling their vertical distribution. It is a facultative zooplanktivorous filter-feeder that can switch to filter-feeding when food density and particle size are appropriate, and it feeds mainly on copepods found by sight. Herring schools often attract predators such as fish, birds and marine mammals. Its range is the North Atlantic: in the west from south-western Greenland and Labrador southward to South Carolina, and in the east from Iceland and southern Greenland southward to the northern Bay of Biscay and eastward to Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, including the Baltic Sea. Maximum length is about 45 cm standard length, commonly about 30 cm, and it can live 25 years, maturing at about 17 cm. It is a highly commercial species and a gamefish, with a low price category. Fishing vulnerability is moderate at 41 of 100 and resilience medium, and climate vulnerability is low to moderate at 29 of 100. IUCN lists it as least concern.
Back to home · United States · Species library