The scaled sardine, ''Harengula jaguana'', is a

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 Oceans, i ...

-like fish in the 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 production of ...

. It is native to coastal waters of the western

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

(where it is known as the pilchard or whitebait) down to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

where it is called mata. It has a solid back with dark streaks and usually a small dark spot at the upper edge of the operculum and sometimes one located at the shoulder. It grows up to 9 inches (23 cm) in length but typically is little more than half that size. It is a fast-growing species, living only 12 to 18 months. Scaled sardines are often referred to by anglers as greenbacks, though that name belongs to the Atlantic Threafin herring. They can usually be caught with strings of wire loops known as minnow rings, sabiki rigs or by

cast net A casting net, also called a throw net, is a net used for fishing. It is a circular net with small weights distributed around its edge. The net is cast or thrown by hand in such a manner that it spreads out while it's in the air before it sinks ...

ting. They are taken by anglers for use as bait or for personal consumption.

Appearance

Also known as pilchard and greenback. * Solid-color on back with dark streaks * Usually has a single small, dark spot at upper edge of gill cover * Sometimes one spot present on shoulder

References

* Clupeidae Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fish described in 1865 {{Clupeiformes-stub