Common names

Types of sardine

5 species carry sardine in an English common name. They sit in 1 family, so the group is a name, not a scientific rank.

About sardine

Sardine and pilchard are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring suborder Clupeoidei. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century, possibly referring to Sardinia, around which sardines were once supposedly abundant.

The terms "sardine"and"pilchard" are not precise, and what is meant depends on the region. The United Kingdom's Sea Fish Industry Authority, for example, classifies sardines as young pilchards. One criterion suggests fish shorter in length than 15 cm (6 in) are sardines, and larger fish are pilchards. The FAO / WHO Codex standard for canned sardines cites 21 species that may be classed as sardines. FishBase, a database of information about fish, calls at least six species pilchards, over a dozen just sardines, and many more with the two basic names qualified by various adjectives.

Etymology

The word sardine first appeared in English in the 15th century, a loanword from French sardine, derived from Latin sardina, from Ancient Greek σαρδίνη (sardínē) or σαρδῖνος (sardĩnos), possibly from the Greek Σαρδώ (Sardō) for Sardinia.

Athenaios quotes a fragmentary passage from Aristotle mentioning the fish σαρδῖνος (sardĩnos), referring to the sardine or pilchard. However, Sardinia is over 1000 km from Athens, so it seems "hardly probable that the Greeks would have obtained fish from so far as Sardinia at a time relatively so early as that of Aristotle", although the Myceneans traded with the Sardinians during the latter Bronze Age.

The flesh of some sardines or pilchards is a reddish-brown colour similar to some varieties of red sardonyx or sardine stone; this word derives from σαρδῖον (sardĩon) with a root meaning 'red' and possibly cognate with Sardis, the capital of ancient Lydia (now western Turkey) where it was obtained. However, the name may refer to the reddish-pink colour of the gemstone sard (or carnelian) known to the ancients.

Genera

Although they are not true sardines, sprats are sometimes marketed as sardines. For example, the European sprat, Sprattus sprattus, is sometimes marketed as the 'brisling sardine'.

Feeding

Sardines feed almost exclusively on zooplankton and congregate wherever this is abundant.

Fisheries

Typically, sardines are caught with encircling nets, particularly purse seines. Many modifications of encircling nets are used, including traps or fishing weirs. The latter are stationary enclosures composed of stakes into which schools of sardines are diverted as they swim along the coast. The fish are caught mainly at night, when they approach the surface to feed on plankton. After harvesting, the fish are submerged in brine while they are transported to shore.

Usage

Sardines are commercially fished for a variety of uses: for bait; for immediate consumption; for drying, salting, or smoking; and for reduction into fish meal or oil. The chief use of sardines is for human consumption, but fish meal is used as animal feed, while sardine oil has many uses, including the manufacture of paint, varnish, and linoleum.

Food and nutrition

Sardines are commonly consumed by humans as a source of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and micronutrients. Sardines may be grilled, pickled, smoked, or preserved in cans.

Canned sardines are 67% water, 21% protein, 10% fat, and contain negligible carbohydrates (table). In a reference amount of 100 g (3.5 oz), canned sardines supply 185 calories of food energy and are a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of vitamin B12 (375% DV), phosphorus (29% DV), and niacin (26% DV) (table). Sardines are a moderate source (10–19% DV) of the B vitamins, riboflavin and pantothenic acid, and several dietary minerals, including calcium and sodium (18% DV each) (table). A 100 g serving of canned sardines supplies about 7 g combined of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids (USDA source in table).

Because they are low in the food chain, sardines are low in contaminants, such as mercury, relative to other fish commonly eaten by humans, and have a relatively low impact in production of greenhouse gases.

Non-food usage

Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany used hydrogenated sardine oil chemically converted into nitroglycerin to produce explosive weapons.

As of 2020, in Japan around 70% of sardines were used for nonedible purposes, such as oil, fertilizer, and fish feed.

History of sardine fishing in the UK

Pilchard fishing and processing became a thriving industry in Cornwall, England from around 1750 to around 1880, after which it went into decline. Catches varied from year to year, and in 1871, the catch was 47,000 hogsheads, while in 1877, only 9,477 hogsheads. A hogshead contained 2,300 to 4,000 pilchards, and when filled with pressed pilchards, weighed 476 lbs. The pilchards were mostly exported to Roman Catholic countries such as Italy and Spain, where they are known as fermades. The chief market for the oil was Bristol, where it was used on machinery.

Since 1997, sardines from Cornwall have been sold as 'Cornish sardines', and since March 2010, under EU law, Cornish sardines have Protected Geographical Status. The industry has featured in numerous works of art, particularly by Stanhope Forbes and other Newlyn School artists.

The traditional "Toast to Pilchards" refers to the lucrative export of the fish to Catholic Europe:

History of sardine fishing in the United States

In the United States, the sardine canning industry peaked in the 1950s. Since then, the industry has been on the decline. The canneries in Monterey Bay, in what was known as Cannery Row in Monterey County, California (where John Steinbeck's novel of the same name was set), failed in the mid-1950s. The last large sardine cannery in the United States, the Stinson Seafood plant in Prospect Harbor, Maine, closed its doors on 15 April 2010 after 135 years in operation.

In April 2015 the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to direct NOAA Fisheries Service to halt the current commercial season in Oregon, Washington and California, because of a dramatic collapse in Pacific sardine stocks. The ban affected about 100 fishing boats with sardine permits, although far fewer were actively fishing at the time. The season normally would end 30 June. The ban was expected to last for more than a year, and was still in place as of August 2025.

In popular culture

The manner in which sardines can be packed in a can has led to the popular English language saying "packed like sardines", which is used metaphorically to describe situations where people or objects are crowded closely together. The phrase "packed up like sardines"appears in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction from 1841, and is a translation of"encaissés comme des sardines", which appears in La Femme, le mari, et l'amant from 1829. Other early appearances of the idiom are "packed together... like sardines in a tin-box"(1845), and"packed... like sardines in a can" (1854).

"Sardines" is also the name of a children's game, where one person hides and each successive person who finds the hidden one packs into the same space until only one is left out, who becomes the next one to hide.

Among the residents of the Mediterranean city of Marseille, the local tendency to exaggerate is linked to a folk tale about a sardine that supposedly blocked the city's port in the 18th century. It was actually blocked by a ship called the Sartine.

Sardine species in focus

These species profiles show how members of the group differ. Their biology describes each named species, rather than every fish in the group.

Pacific Sardine

Sardinops is a genus of sardines of the family Alosidae. It is found in the Indo-Pacific, East Pacific, Southeastern Atlantic, and southwestern Indian oceans. Its length is up to 40 cm (16 in). It has numerous common or vernacular names, some of which more appropriately refer to subspecies, including blue pilchard, blue-bait, South American pilchard, Chilean sardine, and Pacific sardine.

Often considered monotypic with only member as Sardinops sagax, it currently has three valid extant species:

South Australian sardine fishery

The South Australian sardine fishery targets Sardinops sagax and is the highest yielding single species fishery in Australia by volume. The fishery employs the technique of purse seining, which contributes to the sardines' status as sustainable. Schools of sardines are encircled by a net up to 1 kilometre in length which is then drawn closed at the bottom. The catch is then pumped on board the fishing vessel where it is stored in refrigerated holds at below freezing temperatures. 94% of the catch is used as feed in Southern bluefin tuna ranching operations off Port Lincoln, South Australia. The remaining 6% of the catch serves human consumption, recreational fishing bait and premium pet food markets.

The industry commenced in South Australia in 1991 with an annual catch quota of 1,000 metric tons (980 long tons; 1,100 short tons). In 2003, the fishery's annual quota was set at 36,000 metric tons (35,000 long tons; 40,000 short tons). By 2014, the annual quota had increased to 38,000 metric tons (37,000 long tons; 42,000 short tons). The fishery's total landed catch peaked at 56,952 metric tons (56,053 long tons; 62,779 short tons) in the financial year 2004-05 stabilising at around 32,000 metric tons (31,000 long tons; 35,000 short tons) per year thereafter.

Read the full species guide.

Scaled Sardine

The scaled sardine, Harengula jaguana, is a herring -like fish in the family Clupeidae. It is native to coastal waters of the western Atlantic Ocean, from the Gulf of Mexico (where it is known as the pilchard or whitebait) down to Brazil where it is called mata.

It has a solid back with dark streaks and usually a small dark spot at the upper edge of the operculum and sometimes one located at the shoulder. It grows up to 9 inches (23 cm) in length but typically is little more than half that size.

Read the full species guide.

Round Sardinella

The round sardinella (Sardinella aurita), sometimes known as Spanish sardine, is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Sardinella found in both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

S. aurita went through a large boom in catch population around 1990. However, its numbers have been very stable through the last several years.

Diagnostic features

Sardinella aurita has a particularly elongated body, a relatively rounded belly, and a large number of fine gill rakers (up to 160). This is one of the largest Sardinella species, averaging 23 to 28 cm (9.1 to 11.0 in). It has eight pelvic fin rays. It has frontoparietal stripes on the top of its head, a faint golden midlateral line, and a distinctive black spot on the hind border of the gill cover. It is often caught along with Sardinella longiceps, and the two are not easily distinguished.

Habitat

The fish prefer shallower waters around 24 °C (75 °F). It reaches depths of 350 m (1,150 ft). It is a schooling fish that feeds on phytoplankton and zooplankton such as copepods.

Fisheries

Fisheries for this species exist off the West African coast, in the Mediterranean Sea, and along the coasts of Venezuela and Brazil. Fishery numbers in 1983 totaled 1,983,000 tons.

Read the full species guide.

Range