The Pontic shad (''Alosa immaculata'', previously ''Alosa pontica''), also referred to as the Black Sea shad or Kerch shad, is a species of

clupeid 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 f ...

fish in the genus ''

Alosa ''Alosa'' is a genus of fish, the river herrings, in the family (biology), family Clupeidae. Along with other genera in the subfamily Alosinae, they are generally known as shads. tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/ac482e/ac482e27.pdf Subfamily A ...

'', native to the Black Sea and Sea of Azov">Black Sea">tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/ac482e/ac482e27.pdf Subfamily A ...

Distribution

It may also be found in the Sea of Marmara, Marmara Sea in Turkey. It currently migrates up and spawns in six rivers: the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...

Dniester The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and th ...

Southern Bug , ''Pivdennyi Buh'' , name_etymology = , image = Sunset S Bug Vinnitsa 2007 G1.jpg , image_size = 270 , image_caption = Southern Bug River in the vicinity of Vinnytsia, Ukraine , map = PietinisBug ...

Don Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

and Kuban Rivers. Previously the migrations reached far upstream, up to 1,600 in Danube and 900 km in Don, now dams are restricting the migrations. There is also a landlocked population in Don.

Life cycle

''Alosa immaculata'' are

anadromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousan ...

. Spawning occurs between the warmer months of May and August. It has a

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...

life and prefers to feed on small fishes and crustaceans.Yılmaz, Savaş, and Nazmi Polat. ''Length-Weight Relationship and Condition Factor of Pontic Shad, Alosa Immaculata (Pisces: Clupeidae) From the Southern Black Sea.'' Research Journal of Fisheries and Hydrobiology 6.2 (2011): 49-53.

Conservation

Although the species used to migrate as far upstream as the Mohács (

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

) in the

, the building of dams has limited the species. It is now regionally extinct in Hungary. Excessive fishing and pollution may also be responsible for their decline.

References

Pontic shad Fish of the Black Sea Fish of the Sea of Azov Vulnerable fish Vulnerable biota of Europe Pontic shad {{Clupeiformes-stub