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Blueback herring

Alosa aestivalis

blueback herring

Information and species illustrations courtesy of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Species Information
Size Maximum about 38 cm standard length, commonly to 30 cm standard length.
Diagnostic characters
Habitat, biology, and fisheries Coastal, pelagic, euryhaline. Anadromous, adults migrate inshore and ascend rivers to spawn in fresh water or in slightly brackish pools with an outlet to the sea. Possibly overwintering near bottom and out from coast, approaching shore in late spring. Spawns in brackish or fresh waters of rivers, having arrived in coastal waters a month or so later than A. pseudoharengus (Chesapeake Bay in April), later farther north, apparently when water temperatures are above 22 degrees C; young probably returning to salt water at the end of their first summer. Minimum age at maturity 3 years Estimated fecundity 30 000 to 400 000 eggs/female. Eggs pelagic, semi-demersal, yellowish, semi-transparent, 0.87 to 1.11 mm. Often forms large schools. Vertical migrator; feeds on planktonic animals (i.e., copepods), small fishes, and shrimps. Probably not distinguished from A. pseudoharengus in northern part of the range, but catches in southern parts of its range are negligible. Caught with pound nets, weirs, seines, gill nets, fyke nets, and occasionally with otter trawls. Marketed mostly fresh and salted, and used as a baitfish in crustacean fisheries.
Distribution Western north Atlantic (east coast of Florida from St. Johns River northward to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia). Uncertain if landlocked in Great Lakes.
Citations Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 1: Introduction, molluscs, crustaceans, hagfishes, sharks, batoid fishes, and chimaeras. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 1-600. Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 2: Bony fishes part 1 (Acipenseridae to Grammatidae). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 601-1374. Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 2 (Opistognathidae to Molidae), sea turtles and marine mammals. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 1375-2127.