Pacific herring

Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii )

The Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii ) was the longest time as a "race" or subspecies of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus ), for about 25 years but it is increasingly a separate species, named after Peter Simon Pallas, construed. The differences are blurred ( eg, it has usually 52-55 vertebrae compared to 55-57 ), the populations but divorced - they are sympatric only in the north-eastern Europe Arctic Ocean ( White Sea ). Despite the similarity of biological history of use varied widely by humans.

Dissemination

The Pacific herring is between Korea ( Yellow Sea ), northern Japan (N- Honshu, Hokkaido ), the Bering Strait, the Aleutian Islands and California ( or N- Mexico) in coastal areas before ( allegedly deepest catches from 475 m). Isolated populations there is on the north coast of Canada and ( as mentioned ) between Murman Coast and Ob estuary. The swarms invade sometimes found in estuaries, yes, there are apparently even from the sea cut off freshwater populations ( some lakes on Sakhalin, Hokkaido, Honshu ).

Features

The fish is (proven ) 46 cm long ( usually about 35 cm) and 19 years old. Sexually mature he is, depending on growth conditions, with three to nine years of age.

Way of life

Due to the low number of migrant tendency to could emerge " local races": In contrast to the Atlantic herring it does not form large migrations, but only changes the spawning period in shallower ( near-shore ) areas. In cold seas where there is usually lower salinity ( rain, rivers), and this is just for the egg and larval development advantageous ( see also Totoaba and other Sciaenidae ). The spawning season coincides with the season of high plankton production: from February (NW Pacific ) progressively until October (San Diego region), usually at temperatures of 3-9 ° C.

Fishing

In contrast to the Atlantic herring, which is renowned throughout Europe for centuries of popular notoriety, is the Pacific herring as a food fish only of local importance, such as in Korea. However, the catches were the end of the 20th century strong, so that policy had to be adopted. The reason was primarily that the eggs (the " roe " ) in Japan are a popular delicacy as to which one ( after the lifting of a ban on imports approximately 1972) also sought on the North American west coast. In important spawning areas kelp mats ( Macrocystis pyrifera and others) were large surface areas and then salted it with the remote spawning and shipped out. Or you sent the Rogner as a kind of " caviar container " salted to East Asia - the body stripped out of the females and the males ( " milter " ) then served mainly the production of fishmeal and fish oil or as fertilizer. 1964 began to almost 800,000 tons, since the eighties, but always much less, eg 1999 nearly 472,000 tons. Protection programs should the stocks that can be locally threatened by habitat destruction and waste water, now back up ( some stocks have not yet recovered ). For comparison: From the Atlantic species are usually caught three to four times more.

Swell

• Http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/wdb/pub/species_profiles/82_11-126.pdf ( 1989, Biology )
• Http://www.fao.org/fishery/species/2078/en
• Http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/ABL/Habitat/Archives/ablhab_herringoil.htm ( protection of endangered populations from Alaska, who were exposed to, inter alia, the oil spill )
• Pacific herring on Fishbase.org (English)

• Herring -like
• Edible fish