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

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an,

West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

n and

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

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

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea 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 bound ...

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

and Sea of the Hebrides. 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 ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1758 in the

10th edition of Systema Naturae The 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' (Latin; the English title is ''A General System of Nature'') is a book written by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus and published in two volumes in 1758 and 1759, which marks the starting point of zoologic ...

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

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' 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 (; ) 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 maxillary bones. The vomer forms ...

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 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, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

, 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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

, the

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

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 (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthos, benthic (living on the sedimen ...

s such as '' Calanus'', '' Pseudocalanus'' and '' Temora'' while juveniles feed on the eggs and larvae of these crustaceans, and on

diatom A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma'') is any member of a large group comprising several Genus, genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of Earth's B ...

s. Breeding takes place at any time of the 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 and is made into fish meal, canned, smoked, and eaten fresh; cooking methods include pan-frying and broiling. It is used for feeding 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'' 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) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

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

Nutrition information

References

{{Authority control Sprattus 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 Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus