Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 3

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Species Information

Name and classification

The current nomenclature for the Pacific sardine, Sardinops sagax (Family Clupeidae), was adopted by the American Fisheries Society in 1960 (Parrish et al. 1989). Sardines as a group are classified into three genera and about 18 species world-wide (Culley 1971). In British Columbia, the historical common name is the pilchard. The term sardine is increasingly prevalent. The French common name is sardine.

Description

The Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax) is a schooling pelagic species that dominated the fisheries along the west coast of North America in the early 1900s. Vast quantities were taken for food or were reduced to oil. It is an active fish, which avoids nets so it is most easily captured at night when there is little moonlight. It is similar in size and appearance to the Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) with which it is coincident in the Pacific Northwest. Both fish are silvery on the sides and belly with a dark blue or green dorsal surface. The sardine (Figure 1) may be distinguished from the herring by fine striae on the operculum, specialized flaps on the tail fin, and black spots on the side of the body visible through the scales. The sardines averaged 250 mm total length (TL) in the British Columbia fishery and were smaller as one progressed southward. The largest specimen was 394 mm long and weighed 486 grams (Hart 1973). The maximum age was 14 years (Marr 1960). Currently, in the Canadian fishery, few fish are older than age 9, and most are 3-7 years old.