Author: (Lowe, 1838)
FBname: Madeiran sardinella
Comments: A coastal, pelagic species, but tolerant of low salinities (Ref. 188, 5286, 27000, 86940); sometimes in estuaries and lagoons (Ref. 188, 2683). It forms schools, preferring waters of 24°C, at surface or at bottom down to 50m, strongly migratory (Ref. 188, 5286). It feeds on a variety of small planktonic invertebrates, also fish larvae and phytoplankton (Ref. 188, 27165). It breeds only once in the year, during the warm season between July and September, in coastal waters; juveniles and adults show clear north-south migrations in the Gabon-Congo-Angola sector and the Sierra Leone-Mauritania sector of the Atlantic Ocean, each area having nurseries; these movements are correlated with the seasonal upwelling (Ref. 188). It is of considerable importance off West African coasts, but combined with <i>Sardinella aurita</i> in most statistics, partly because both species are often caught together (Ref. 188).