The European sprat (''Sprattus sprattus''), also known as bristling, brisling, garvie, garvock, Russian sardine, russlet, skipper or whitebait, is a species of small marine fish in the

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Ocean ...

family

Clupeidae Clupeidae is a family of ray-finned fishes, comprising, for instance, the herrings, shads, sardines, hilsa, and menhadens. The clupeoids include many of the most important food fishes in the world, and are also commonly caught for producti ...

. Found in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an waters, it has silver grey scales and white-grey flesh. Specific seas in which the species occurs include the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the C ...

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

and

Sea of the Hebrides The Sea of the Hebrides ( gd, An Cuan Barrach, ) is a small, partly sheltered section of the North Atlantic Ocean, indirectly off the southern part of the north-west coast of Scotland. To the east are the mainland of Scotland and the northern ...

. The fish is the subject of fisheries, particularly in Scandinavia, and is made into fish meal, as well as being used for human consumption. When used for food it can be canned, salted, breaded, fried, boiled, grilled, baked, deep fried, marinated, broiled, and smoked.

Taxonomy

This fish was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

in 1758 in the

10th edition of Systema Naturae The 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' is a book written by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus and published in two volumes in 1758 and 1759, which marks the starting point of zoological nomenclature. In it, Linnaeus introduced binomial nomencl ...

. He called it ''Clupea sprattus'', but it was later transferred to the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

'' Sprattus''. Three subspecies are recognised; ''S. sprattus balticus'' from the Baltic Sea; ''S. sprattus phalericus'' from the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Black Seas and ''S. sprattus sprattus'' from the eastern Atlantic.

Description

The European sprat is a small fish growing to a maximum length of , but more often in the range. It is fairly elongate and somewhat laterally compressed, with a keel-like row of sharp scales along the belly. The lower jaw projects slightly, there are seldom any

vomer The vomer (; lat, vomer, lit=ploughshare) is one of the unpaired facial bones of the skull. It is located in the midsagittal line, and articulates with the sphenoid, the ethmoid, the left and right palatine bones, and the left and right max ...

ine teeth on the roof of the mouth and the hind edge of the gill covers is smoothly rounded, without any fleshy protuberances. The

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

has no spines and 13 to 21 soft rays while the anal fin has no spines and 12 to 23 soft rays. The origin of the pelvic fins, which have seven (occasionally eight) soft rays, are immediately below or in front of the origin of the dorsal fin. This fish has a bluish or greenish back and silvery flanks, with no dark spotting.

Distribution

The European sprat is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. Its range includes the

, the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

, southern Norway and Sweden, round the coasts of the British Isles, the Iberian Peninsula, Morocco, the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

, the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to th ...

and the

. It occurs both in open water well away from the coast and in bays and estuaries, being able to tolerate salinities as low as 4 parts per thousand. It is a schooling fish and migrates between its winter feeding grounds and its summer breeding grounds. It also makes vertical migrations, rising to near the surface at night to feed.

Ecology

Adult sprats feed on

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthic (living on the ocean floor), a number of species have ...

s such as ''

Calanus ''Calanus'' is a genus of marine copepod in the family Calanidae (Order Calanoida). The genus was split in 1974, with some species being placed in a new genus, '' Neocalanus''. The following species are recognised: *'' Calanus aculeatus'' Bra ...

'', '' Pseudocalanus'' and '' Temora'' while juveniles feed on the eggs and larvae of these crustaceans, and on

diatom A diatom ( Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising se ...

s. Breeding takes place at any time of year but peaks between December and April in the Mediterranean and between April and August in the Baltic and northeastern Atlantic. Spawning may take place in inshore waters or up to off the coast. This fish is sometimes parasitised by a copepod, the sprat eye-maggot (''Lernaeenicus sprattae'') which burrows into its eye and causes loss of visual acuity or even blindness. Heavy infestations can kill the fish.

Uses

There are substantial fisheries for this fish in various parts of its range. It is mostly caught by

trawling Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different spec ...

and is made into fish meal, canned, smoked, and eaten fresh; cooking methods include pan-frying and broiling. It is used for feeding

mink Mink are dark-colored, semiaquatic, carnivorous mammals of the genera '' Neogale'' and '' Mustela'' and part of the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, otters, and ferrets. There are two extant species referred to as "mink": ...

and juveniles are used for fish bait. Young sprats are commonly known as brisling. Canned sprats (usually smoked) are available in many north European countries, including the Baltic states, Scandinavia, Ireland, Germany, Poland and Russia. The fish has about 10.5% fat in its flesh and is a rich source of vitamins and minerals.

Status

This fish has large swings in its population size, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea. These may in part be due to the increasing dominance of the comb jelly ''

Mnemiopsis leidyi ''Mnemiopsis leidyi'', the warty comb jelly or sea walnut, is a species of tentaculate ctenophore (comb jelly). It is native to western Atlantic coastal waters, but has become established as an invasive species in European and western Asian re ...

'' which in turn may be related to increases in sea temperature. Landings by commercial fisheries in the Mediterranean and Black Seas fell in the 1990s but recovered in the next decade. The population size and trend of this fish is unknown and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

is unable to assess its conservation status, listing it as "

Data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

Nutrition information

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q506823 European sprat Fish of Europe Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of the North Sea Fish of the Black Sea Fish of the Baltic Sea Commercial fish European sprat European sprat