Family: Herring

Also known as "sardine", it is a collective name for a number of herring with a laterally compressed, usually silvery-white body.

It is a collective name for the genera Sardine, Lesser Sardine, and Mimic Sardine in the Herring family of the order Herringiformes in the order Scleractinia.

The world's important marine economic fish.

The genus sardine is composed of only one species of sardine, which is divided into two subspecies: the European sardine and the Mediterranean sardine.

There are five species in the genus Sardinella***, namely, the Far Eastern Sardine, the California Sardine, the South American Sardine, the Australian Sardine, and the South African Sardine. The small sardine genus is the most diverse, with more than 20 species. Chinese sardines are mainly small sardines of about 10 species, with golden small sardines and Jow's small sardines being the most productive. The body of the sardine is prolonged and laterally compressed. The abdomen has ribbed scales, and the body is covered with round scales without lateral lines.

Economic and Nutritional Value:

It has the advantages of fast growth and strong reproduction, and its meat is tender and contains high fat. Steaming, braising, frying and pickling dry steaming are delicious. According to information, sardines contain a long-chain fatty acids with five double bonds, can prevent thrombosis, the treatment of heart disease has a special effect. However, due to the small individual fish, high yield low value, fresh processing difficulties, more fishmeal raw materials. In recent years, all over the world in the development and processing of fish lambs, fish balls, fish rolls, fish sausage and other convenience foods.

Growing area conditions and characteristics:

Sardines are offshore warm-water fish, usually inhabiting the middle and upper layers, swimming quickly.

The moderate temperature is around 20-30℃.

Before World War II, large numbers of sardines could often be caught in the sea off California in the United States. The strange thing is that in 1951 the annual production of sardines suddenly dropped from 500,000 tons to 3,000 tons. The reason for the drop in production was later found to be due to a sudden drop in water temperature. Six years later the water temperature here rose again and the production of sardines increased significantly again.

The sardine mainly feeds on plankton and diatoms. Bait varies by species, sea area and season. The golden sardine generally does not make long-distance migration, autumn and winter adult fish inhabits deep water beyond 70 to 80 meters, spring to the near shore for reproductive migration.

The Far East sardine is the most productive of the sardine species, and is distributed in the coastal waters of Japan. It can be divided into four groups: the Pacific Group, the Japan Sea Group, the Ashigara Group, and the Kyushu Group.

Sardines in the ocean are the most polite and disciplined, consciously lining up in neat rows and obeying the rules when they swim into narrow areas. The older ones are in the lower part of the water and the younger ones in the upper part. If a Japanese eel is spotted in the school, the older sardines will politely give up the lower layer to their "guests" and line up in the upper layer themselves.

Nutritional value:

Nutrient content of sardines (in 100 grams of edible food)

Calories (kcal) 89 Thiamine (mg) .01 Calcium (mg) 184

Protein (grams) 19.8 Riboflavin (mg) .03 Magnesium (mg) 30

Fat (grams) 1.1 Niacin ( mg) 2 Iron (mg) 1.4

Carbohydrates (g) 0 Vitamin C (mg) 0 Manganese (mg) .07

Dietary Fiber (g) 0 Vitamin E (mg) .26 Zinc (mg) .16

Vitamin A (mcg) 0 Cholesterol (mg) 158 Copper (mg) .02

Carotenoids (mcg) 1.3 Potassium (mg) 136 Phosphorus (mg) 183

Retinol equivalents (mcg) 78 Sodium (mg) 91.5 Selenium (mcg) 48.95

DISTRIBUTION STATUS:

Sardines of the genus Sardina Clustered migratory fish. Distributed in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean coast, not produced in China.

The abundant sardine-like resources possessed by the southeastern coast of China are the Far Eastern sardine-like fishes of the genus Sardina, which are slightly different.

Capture method: Since sardines are attracted to light at night. So fishermen generally use lighted purse seines, drift gillnets, large draw nets and set nets to catch them.

Use: Sardines are highly nutritious and flavorful for food. It can also be used for refining fish oil, tanning, soap making and metal smelting; it can also be used to make fish meal as bait.

Cooking tips: when cooking sardines, they can be salted first and then boiled in beer for 30 minutes, which removes the fishy odor of sardines