Sprat (Sprattus Sprattus)
Latin name: Sprattus sprattus
Common name: Sprat
Other names:
In other languages: E: Espadin, F: Sprat, D: Europäische Sprotte
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Clupeiformes
Family: Clupeidae
Genus: Sprattus
Distribution: It is found in the North Sea all the way down to the Mediterranean.
Habitat: A pelagic shoaling fish that is moving in deeper water during the daytime and moving to the surface at night where the school loses the depth to its overall body and spreads out across large surface areas. This breaking up of the school makes the individual fish and the shoal as a whole very vulnerable especially on moonlit nights.
Size: Common: 8 - 12cm, maximum: 16cm.
Did you know? We have seen large flights of herring gulls feeding off these fish up to 40 kilometres from the shore in the approaches to the Strait of Gibraltar at night. A very commercial fish to the point where some sprats are even marinated and sold as anchovies. In Norway they are canned and known as brisling. To most people however they are the sprats that were set to catch the mackerel.