Details
Sprattus sprattus
A small clupeid that forms huge schools in northeastern Atlantic and European coastal waters, filtering plankton and feeding many predators.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
Lives from coastal to offshore surface waters in the North Sea, Baltic Sea, and parts of the Mediterranean, especially productive coastal zones.
The body is slender and silver with a blue-green back. Sharp belly scutes give it the typical outline of a small schooling clupeid.
It swims in very large schools and shifts depth between day and night. Schools tighten under predator pressure.
It filters phytoplankton and zooplankton, transferring plankton production to fish-eating animals.
Adults release eggs into open water, and larvae drift near the surface. Spawning seasons vary by sea area.
Sprat is canned, smoked, and rendered for fish meal, while also serving as key prey for seabirds, cod, and mackerel.
