Sardines.

Sardines are the collective name for certain edible fishes of the genus Sardines, Sardines and Sardines of the family Herringidae, order Herringidae, and some edible fishes of the family Herringidae. Also refers to common herring (Clupea harengus) canned in oil and other small herring or herring-like fish.

Sardines are also known as sardines, anchovies and anchovies in Hong Kong. The smaller ones are two inches long, and the larger ones are about a foot long. The lower jaw is slightly longer than the upper jaw, the teeth are not obvious, the back is pale and the belly is white, and the meat is beautiful. It is mostly used for canned food. It was originally captured in Sardinia, Italy and was named after it. In ancient Greek, it was called "sardonios" which means "from the island of Sardinia". Distributed in isothermal ocean areas between 6 and 20 degrees north and south latitude.

Life habits

Sardines are offshore warm-water fish and are generally not found in open seas and oceans. They swim quickly and usually inhabit the middle and upper layers, but in autumn and winter when the surface water temperature is lower, they inhabit deeper areas. The suitable temperature of most sardines is around 20-30℃, and only a few species have a lower suitable temperature. For example, the suitable temperature of Far Eastern sardines is 8-19℃.

Sardines mainly feed on plankton, which varies with fish species, sea areas and seasons, and also varies between adults and juveniles. For example, adults of golden sardines mainly feed on planktonic crustaceans (including copepods, brachyuran larvae, amphipods and mysid shrimps) and also diatoms.

In addition to feeding on planktonic crustacean larvae, juvenile fish also eat diatoms and dinoflagellates. Golden sardines generally do not migrate long distances. Adult fish live in deep water 70 to 80 meters away in autumn and winter. In spring, when the coastal water temperature rises, fish migrate to the shore for reproduction.

The larvae and juveniles grow up in search of food along the coast, and gradually migrate northward with the warm current of the South China Sea in summer. In autumn, the surface water temperature drops and they migrate southward. After October, when the fish body has grown to more than 150 mm, it will gradually move to deeper sea areas due to the decrease in coastal water temperature.