(Alosa pseudoharengus)
DESCRIPTION:
- Large eye (larger than blueback herring), dorsal margin of upper jaw angled upward, pale peritoneum.
- Body compressed fusiform, abdomen compressed.
- Sides silvery with shoulder spot present on fish greater than 10 cm.
HABITAT:
- Occur in rivers, estuaries and coastal waters of the western Atlantic.
- Schools in fresh and salt water making diel vertical migrations moving upward during nightime hours.
- Adults found on Continental Shelf between spawning migrations.
- Spawning occurs in rivers, streams and ponds.
DISTRIBUTION:
- Range from Newfoundland to northern South Carolina.
MIGRATIONS:
- Adults enter the Chesapeake Bay to spawn in the spring (late March and April) then migrate to the sea in early fall to overwinter in deep offshore water.
- Larvae and juveniles linger in fresh and brackish streams before migrating seaward in the fall.
DIET:
- Feed on diatoms, copepods, shrimps, insects, small fishes, squids and fish eggs.
(Info and images obtained from Fishes of the Chesapeake Bay by Murdy, Birdsong and Musick.)
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