Herring family?Clupeidae? West herring genus?Alosa fish

Below is the American West herring Alosa sapidissima , commonly known as: American shad

Body is tall, with a notch at the front of the palate to accommodate the tip of the lower palate. Spiny, but meaty. Adults have a light-colored abdomen and a dark blue or nearly black back, and they live in schools.

Migratory fish, feeding on plankton, entering the deep sea in the fall; after entering the Pacific rivers of North America from Atlanta, geographic evolution in life-history responses occurred in less than a hundred years