Teleostei (teleosts) >
Clupeiformes (Herrings) >
Alosidae (Shads and Sardines)
Etymology: Alosa: Latin, alausa = a fish cited by Ausonius and Latin, halec = pickle, dealing with the Greek word hals = salt; it is also the old Saxon name for shad = "alli" ; 1591 (Ref. 45335).
More on author: Borodin.
Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range
Ecology
Brackish; pelagic; oceanodromous. Temperate; 48°N - 35°N, 45°E - 56°E (Ref. 188)
Former USSR and Asia: Caspian Sea.
Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age
Maturity: Lm ?, range 20 - ? cm
Max length : 50.0 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 188); common length : 30.0 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 188)
Dorsal spines (total): 0; Anal spines: 0. Body fairly elongate, more `herring-like' than `shad-like'. gill rakers thick and coarse, shorter, equal to or a little longer than gill filaments, either straight or curved, pointed or blunt, occasionally even bifurcated at tips. Teeth well developed in both jaws. Other Caspian shads have deeper, more shad-like bodies.
Occurs in brackish water and non-anadromous, but strongly migratory. Feeds on small clupeids, gobies, atherines, also crustaceans and occasionally insects and mollusks. Spawning patterns among the subspecies vary but occur mostly in spring and summer after an inshore migration and movement northward.
Life cycle and mating behavior
Maturities | Reproduction | Spawnings | Egg(s) | Fecundities | Larvae
Various spawning patterns among the subspecies (mostly in spring and summer after an inshore migration and movement northward).
Whitehead, P.J.P., 1985. FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 7. Clupeoid fishes of the world (suborder Clupeoidei). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of the herrings, sardines, pilchards, sprats, shads, anchovies and wolf-herrings. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(7/1):1-303. Rome: FAO. (Ref. 188)
IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)
Threat to humans
Harmless
Human uses
Fisheries: highly commercial
Tools
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Internet sources
Estimates based on models
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref.
82804): PD
50 = 0.5000 [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00776 (0.00515 - 0.01169), b=3.01 (2.89 - 3.13), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species & Genus-body shape (Ref.
93245).
Trophic level (Ref.
69278): 3.9 ±0.4 se; based on diet studies.
Generation time: 3.1 ( na - na) years. Estimated as median ln(3)/K based on 2
growth studies.
Resilience (Ref.
120179): High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref.
59153): Low to moderate vulnerability (27 of 100).
