Animalia > Chordata > Clupeiformes > Clupeidae > Alosa > Alosa aestivalis

Alosa aestivalis (Blue-back herring; Blue-back shad; Shed herring; Shad herring; River herring; Herring; Blueback shad; Blueback herring; Blueback glut herring)

Synonyms: Alosa cyanonoton; Clupea aestivalis; Clupea fasciata (heterotypic); Pomolobus aestivalis; Pomolobus cyanonoton (heterotypic)
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Wikipedia Abstract

The blueback herring or blueback shad (Alosa aestivalis) is an anadromous species of herring from the east coast of North America, with a range from Nova Scotia to Florida. Blueback herring form schools and are believed to migrate offshore to overwinter near the bottom. This fish has, in the past, been used as a baitfish for the lobster fishing industry. It is also used for human consumption, usually smoked. It is caught (during its migration up stream) using large dip nets to scoop the fish out of shallow, constricted areas on its migratory streams and rivers.
View Wikipedia Record: Alosa aestivalis

Endangered Species

Status: Vulnerable
View IUCN Record: Alosa aestivalis

Attributes

Adult Length [1]  16 inches (40 cm)
Brood Dispersal [1]  In the open
Brood Egg Substrate [1]  Phyto-lithophils
Brood Guarder [1]  No
Litter Size [1]  349,000
Maximum Longevity [1]  8 years
Migration [3]  Anadromous
Adult Weight [2]  110 grams
Diet [3]  Carnivore
Female Maturity [1]  4 years
Male Maturity [2]  3 years 6 months

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Appalachian Piedmont United States Nearctic Temperate Coastal Rivers    
Laurentian Great Lakes Canada, United States Nearctic Large Lakes    

Protected Areas

Prey / Diet

Predators

Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Bald Eagle)[4]
Mergus serrator (Red-breasted Merganser)[4]
Morone saxatilis (Striper bass)[4]
Pomatomus saltatrix (Tailor run)[5]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Frimpong, E.A., and P. L. Angermeier. 2009. FishTraits: a database of ecological and life-history traits of freshwater fishes of the United States. Fisheries 34:487-495.
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 4Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 5 Steimle FW, Pikanowski RA, McMillan DG, Zetlin CA, Wilk SJ. 2000. Demersal Fish and American Lobster Diets in the Lower Hudson - Raritan Estuary. US Dep Commer, NOAA Tech Memo NMFS NE 161; 106 p.
♦ 6Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0