About Opisthonema oglinum (Lesueur, 1818)
The Atlantic thread herring, with the scientific name Opisthonema oglinum (Lesueur, 1818), is a herring-like fish that belongs to the family Clupeidae. This species has a dark blue-gray back, silvery sides, a white belly, and a small head, and can reach a maximum length of 38 cm. It inhabits shallow waters and harbors along the coasts of the western Atlantic Ocean, ranging from Cape Cod south to Brazil, and including the Gulf of Mexico. Its diet consists mainly of plankton, but it also consumes small fish and crustaceans. Anglers often confuse this species with the scaled sardine, Harengula jaguana.
