Gold sardine
| Gold sardine | ||||||||||||
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Golden sardine ( Sardinella aurita ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Sardinella aurita | ||||||||||||
| Valenciennes , 1847 |
The golden sardine ( Sardinella aurita ), also called large sardine or ear sardine , belongs to the genus Sardinella , which belongs to the family of Clupeidae . It is swarm-forming , occurs in the Mediterranean , Black Sea and parts of the Atlantic and feeds mainly on zooplankton .
features
The size is 25 to 30 cm, in rare cases up to 33 cm. The body shape of the gold sardine is similar to the sardine . In contrast, it is longer and thicker and the keel scales along the belly side do not form a pronounced keel. The body ends in a large, strongly forked tail. The two last rays of the anal fin are significantly longer than the others. The back is blue-green, the sides appear silvery. The yellow stripe on the side of the animal can also appear brownish. On the edge of the main gill cover there is also an indistinct, brown spot. The ventral fin has eight separate rays, which distinguishes the golden sardine from the other species in the genera Sardinella , Harengula , Opisthonema , Herklotsichthys and Amblygaster .
distribution
The golden sardine can be found all over the Mediterranean . The distribution extends over parts of the Black Sea . They can also be found on the West African coast from Gibraltar to South Africa . Another distribution area is in the western Atlantic , where it can also be found from the coast of the USA to South America . Due to the rise in sea water temperature, the range is currently expanding.
Way of life
Golden sardines live in large schools at depths of 10 to 80 m. In some cases, they are also just below the surface of the water or to a depth of 350 m. They rarely stay near the coast and often come to the surface of the water at night to eat and spend the day at greater depths. They feed mostly on zooplankton , but also on phytoplankton , the latter especially the young animals.
Mating and breeding take place all year round. This leads to fluctuations that depend on where you live. In the northern hemisphere, for example, mating takes place especially in the warm months from June to September. In the southern hemisphere , on the other hand, mating takes place in the warm months from September to March. In some areas it also reproduces twice a year.
The young animals often stay close to their place of birth and only begin to swim in cold deep-sea waters and make long hikes in the adult stage . As adults, they prefer temperatures above 24 ° C.
use
The golden sardine is an edible fish and is particularly fished in West Africa , Venezuela and Brazil . It is often confused with the Brazilian anchovy in the fishing areas of the Western Pacific . In the Mediterranean , it is sometimes mistaken for a European sardine . In 1983, 15,209 tons were produced in the Mediterranean , 401,039 tons in West Africa and 286,527 tons in the West Atlantic , whereby the Maderische sardine and the Brazilian sardine are included in these figures .
literature
- Patrick Louisy : marine fish. Western Europe Mediterranean. Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3844-1 , p. 29.
- Rupert Riedl : Fauna and flora of the Mediterranean . Verlag Paul Parey, Hamburg and Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-490-23418-9 , p. 669.
- Peter Whitehead , Gareth Nelson : Clupeoid Fishes of the World (suborder Clupeoidei): Chirocentridae, Clupeidae, and Pristigasteridae, Food & Agriculture Org. , Rome 1985, ISBN 9789251023402 , pp. 93, 94.
- Ana Sabatés et al .: Sea warming and fish distribution: the case of the small pelagic fish, Sardinella aurita, in the western Mediterranean, Global Change Biology , Volume 12, Issue 11, November 2006, pp. 2209-2219
Web links
- Gold sardine on Fishbase.org (English)