European Pilchard - Sardina pilchardus - A Silver Bait Ball at Cirkewwa Reef

A tightly packed school of European Pilchards forms a shimmering bait ball above the rocky shallows of Cirkewwa Reef, Malta.

The European Pilchard or European Sardine (Sardina pilchardus) is a small pelagic fish with an elongated, streamlined body that is slightly compressed from side to side. The back is generally greenish to bluish, while the flanks are bright silver and the underside is pale, creating flashes of reflected light when large numbers of fish turn together. The species has a relatively pointed snout, a single dorsal fin and characteristic striations on the operculum, while the last two rays of the anal fin are enlarged. European Pilchards are coastal schooling fish found throughout the Mediterranean and northeastern Atlantic. They feed mainly on planktonic crustaceans and commonly gather into dense shoals, an effective defensive behaviour that can confuse predators. FishBase records the species from around 10 to 100 metres depth and gives a maximum reported standard length of approximately 27.5 centimetres. This photograph captures a particularly compact school in shallow water at Cirkewwa Reef in Malta, where hundreds of silvery fish have compressed into a rounded bait-ball formation close above the rocky seabed.