Peruvian anchoveta

Peruvian anchovy ( Engraulis ringens )

The Peruvian anchovy ( Engraulis ringens ) is a small fish from the order of herring -like. According to the FAO, he was in 2008 with 7.4 million tonnes of the world's most edible fish caught, before the Alaska pollock, Atlantic herring and the Tunfischart Skipjack, each with around 2.5 million tonnes.

Dissemination and lifestyle

The pelagic species lives in the southeastern Pacific preferably in cold water in a range of three dozen to 180 miles off the coasts of Peru and Chile at a depth of 3 to 80 meters. The diet consists of plankton, in some studies it was found that diatoms accounted for up to 98 % of the added food. The propagation of the fish takes place in the period from July to September and to a lesser extent in February / March. The Peruvian anchovy is a significant food source for seabirds.

Description

The schooling fish reaches a maximum length of 20 centimeters and a life aged 3 to 4 years. The body is elongated and slender, the cross-section is round. The body color is bluish or greenish. Juveniles have a silvery stripes on the sides of the body, which disappears with age. The Peruvian anchovy is distinguished by a high number of gill Reuse rays ( 34 to 49 on the lower limb of the first gill arch ) from all other Pacific anchovy species. The anal fin is supported by less than 22 fin rays.

Catch and use

After a major slump in 1972 by El Niño, the stocks have recovered and reached the catches those of the 1960s, since the mid- 1980s. The catch is used predominantly in the production of fish meal, is for Peru leader in the world market.