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Sardina pilchardus (Walbaum, 1792)

European pilchard
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Sardina pilchardus   AquaMaps   Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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Image of Sardina pilchardus (European pilchard)
Sardina pilchardus
Picture by De Sanctis, A.

Greece country information

Common names: Sardela, Sardele, Sardélla
Occurrence: native
Salinity: marine
Abundance: | Ref:
Importance: commercial | Ref: FAO, 1994
Aquaculture: | Ref:
Regulations: | Ref:
Uses: no uses
Comments: Recorded from Strymonikos and Ierissos Gulfs (Ref. 58475). Also Ref. 74833. Also Ref. 188.
National Checklist:
Country Information: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/gr.html
National Fisheries Authority:
Occurrences: Occurrences Point map
Main Ref: Papaconstantinou, C., 2014
National Database:

Common names from other countries

Sardine commune, Sardina europea, 沙丁鱼, ... more

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Clupeiformes (Herrings) > Alosidae (Shads and Sardines)
Etymology: Sardina: Latin and Greek, sarda = sardine; name related to the island of Sardinia (Ref. 45335).
  More on author: Walbaum.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Marine; freshwater; brackish; pelagic-neritic; oceanodromous (Ref. 51243); depth range 10 - 100 m (Ref. 5286), usually 25 - 100 m (Ref. 54866).   Subtropical; 68°N - 14°N, 32°W - 43°E (Ref. 54866)

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Northeast Atlantic: Iceland (rare) and North Sea, southward to Bay de Gorée, Senegal. Mediterranean (common in the western part and in Adriatic Sea, rare in the eastern part), Sea of Marmara and Black Sea.

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm 14.8  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 27.5 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 74552); common length : 20.0 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 188); max. reported age: 15 years (Ref. 35388)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 13-21; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 12 - 23. Body sub-cylindrical, belly rather rounded (but more compressed in juveniles). Hind margin of gill opening smoothly rounded (without fleshy outgrowths) ; 3 to 5 distinct body striae radiating downward on lower part of operculum; lower gill rakers not becoming shorter at angle of first gill arch, the upper series not overlapping the lower. Last 2 anal fin rays enlarged.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Littoral species (Ref. 6808). Form schools, usually at depths of 25 to 55 or even 100 m by day, rising to 10 to 35 m at night. Feed mainly on planktonic crustaceans, also on larger organisms. Spawn in batches (Ref. 51846), in the open sea or near the coast, producing 50,000-60,000 eggs with a mean diameter of 1.5 mm (Ref. 35388). Marketed fresh, frozen or canned. Also utilized dried or salted and smoked; can be pan-fried, broiled and microwaved (Ref. 9988).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Breeds at 20 to 25 m, near the shore or as much as 100 km out to sea.

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Whitehead, P.J.P., 1985. FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 7. Clupeoid fishes of the world (suborder Clupeoidei). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of the herrings, sardines, pilchards, sprats, shads, anchovies and wolf-herrings. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(7/1):1-303. Rome: FAO. (Ref. 188)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 20 May 2013

CITES (Ref. 128078)

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless




Human uses

Fisheries: highly commercial
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Internet sources

Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | DiscoverLife | DORIS | ECOTOX | Faunafri | Fishtrace | GenBank(genome, nucleotide) | GloBI | GOBASE | | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | National databases | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | Public aquariums | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Scirus | SeaLifeBase | Tree of Life | Wikipedia(Go, Search) | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 115969): 7.1 - 17.3, mean 10.3 (based on 553 cells).
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 1.0000   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00676 (0.00589 - 0.00776), b=3.06 (3.02 - 3.10), in cm Total Length, based on LWR estimates for this species (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  3.1   ±0.1 se; based on diet studies.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (K=0.23-0.5; tm=1-2; tmax=15).
Prior r = 0.60, 95% CL = 0.40 - 0.90, Based on 18 stock assessments.
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Low to moderate vulnerability (30 of 100).
Climate Vulnerability (Ref. 125649):  Low vulnerability (22 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Low.