Pacific herring

Open encyclopedia reference

The Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) is a species of the herring family associated with the Pacific Ocean environment of North America and northeast Asia. It is a silvery fish with unspined fins and a deeply forked caudal fin. The distribution is widely along the California coast from Baja California north to Alaska and the Bering Sea; in Asia, the distribution is south to Japan, Korea, and China. Clupea pallasii is considered a keystone species because of its very high productivity and interactions with many predators and prey. Pacific herring spawn in variable seasons, but often in the early part of the year in intertidal and sub-tidal environments, commonly on eelgrass, seaweed or other submerged vegetation. They do not die after spawning and can breed in successive years. According to government sources, the Pacific herring fishery collapsed in the year 1993 and is slowly recovering to commercial viability in several North American stock areas. The species is named for Peter Simon Pallas, a noted German naturalist and explorer.

Wikipedia contributors, Pacific herring; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T05:06:20.806491+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Clupea pallasii Valenciennes, 1847

Name authority

Valenciennes, 1847

Common name

Pacific herring

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Order

Clupeiformes

Family

Clupeidae

Genus

Clupea

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. orderClupeiformes
11. suborderClupeoidei Bleeker, 1859
12. familyClupeidae Cuvier, 1816
13. genusClupea Linnaeus, 1758
14. speciesClupea pallasii Valenciennes, 1847

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Clupea. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 18 records assigned to Clupeidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. Cuvier, G., & Valenciennes A Hist Nat Poiss v. (1847). Histoire naturelle des poissons. Tome vingtième. Livre vingt et unième. De la famille des Clupéoïdes. 20: I-Xviii, 1: 1–472. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:WCTM. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.