Pacific rainbow smelt (Osmerus dentex) is a saltwater, freshwater, brackish species recorded in the United States. It is found at depths of 0–290 m.
Scientific name: Osmerus dentex · Water: Saltwater, Freshwater, Brackish
Size: up to 34 cm
The Pacific rainbow smelt is a pelagic osmerid that inhabits the brackish water of estuaries, lagoons, coastal shallows and bays, as well as fresh water in lowland and piedmont rivers. It is a schooling species that lives in lakes or inshore coastal waters, and it is pelagic at sea, where it occurs at 4 to 8 m depth; overall it is recorded from the surface down to 290 m. It leaves the sea or the lake and ascends freshwater streams to spawn, some individuals remaining in fresh water throughout their lives while those that enter the sea stay within 8 to 10 km of the shore. It spawns in rapids in clear water, over stone and gravel at a depth of 0.2 to 0.5 m. Young-of-the-year feed mostly on copepods and cladocerans, and also take rotifers and eggs. Its range is the North Pacific and Arctic: from Wonsan in North Korea and the Sea of Okhotsk to Barkley Sound in British Columbia, and north to the Bering Sea and the Arctic, as well as the estuaries and coastal waters of the European and Siberian shores of the Arctic Ocean from the White Sea to Chukota in eastern Siberia. Maximum length is about 34 cm standard length, commonly about 15 cm, and it can live 11 years, maturing at about 15 cm. It is a commercial species and a gamefish, with a low price category. Fishing vulnerability is high at 60 of 100 and resilience medium. IUCN lists it as least concern.
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