Sardines are small, slender, silvery-colored fish with a short and only one dorsal fin, no lateral line, and a scaleless head; their body length is about 15 to 30 centimeters (6 to 12 inches). They live in dense schools and migrate along the coast, feeding on a large amount of plankton. Spawning occurs mainly in the spring, and the eggs and juveniles that hatch a few days later drift with the water until they metamorphose into free-swimming fish. All sardines are economic species and can be eaten fresh, dried, salted or smoked, or boiled intensively to make fishmeal or fish oil. Troll nets are important fishing devices, especially the so-called seine nets, and many other formalized troll nets, such as drop nets or weirs, are also used. Weirs are fixed paddocks made of piles into which schools of sardines swim along the coast. Fishing is mainly done at night, when the fish are floating on the surface feeding on plankton; after catching, the fish are dipped in salt water and transported to shore.

Sardines are mainly used for food, but their flesh can also be used as animal feed. Uses of sardine oil include the manufacture of paints, pigments and linoleum, and in Europe it is used to make margarine.

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

It is a collective name for the sardines, small sardines, and anemone sardines in the herring family Herringidae of the order Scleractinia.

The world's important marine economic fish.

Sardine is the collective name of some herring, the body side flat, silver-white, adult sardine body length of about 26 centimeters, mainly distributed in the northwest Pacific Ocean around Japan and the coastal waters of the Korean Peninsula. Sardines are rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which improves intelligence and enhances memory, so they are also known as "smart food". It mainly feeds on plankton and diatoms, and the bait varies according to species, sea area and season.