The elongate ilisha (the

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

name) (''Ilisha elongata''), also known as the Chinese herring or slender shad (although not a true

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 ...

shad The Alosinae, or the shads,Alosinae

) ( or simply 鳓, lè), is a species of

longfin herring Pristigasteridae is a family of ray-finned fish related to the herrings, including the genera ''Ilisha'', '' Pellona'', and '' Pristigaster''. One common name for the taxon is longfin herring. The taxonomic classification of this family is in dou ...

native to the coastal waters and estuaries of North Indian Ocean and

Northwest Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. It is a relatively large species, up to in total length. It is an important fishery species.

Life history

In the northern part of its range, ''Ilisha elongata'' matures at age of 2 years and has a lifespan of about 6 years; in the warmer parts of its range, it matures under age 1 year and has a lifespan of about 3 years. It can spawn several batches of eggs.

Fisheries and use

The species is commercially fished. Based on the

fishery statistics, the annual catches ranged between 80,400 and 98,700 tonnes in 2000–2009, all of them from the Northwest Pacific (FAO Fishing Area 61) and almost all of them caught by China. The meat is tasty but has many bones.

References

elongate ilisha Commercial fish Fish of China Fish of Korea Fish of Malaysia Fish of Vietnam Marine fauna of East Asia Marine fish of Southeast Asia elongate ilisha {{Clupeiformes-stub