Baltic Coast & Archipelagos, Scandinavia

Atlantic Herring

Clupea harengus

The great schooling forage fish of the Northwest Atlantic, averaging larger than its Pacific herring counterpart. 'Sardine' is a trade name only — canned young Atlantic herring were the basis of Maine's old sardine industry. Immense schools feed cod, tuna, seabirds and whales as well as anglers' bait freezers.

Vimba

Vimba vimba

An anadromous brackish-water cyprinid of the Baltic lagoons and the Danube that runs into rivers to spawn in spring. Its status is mixed across borders: it is protected in Poland and controlled under Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive in Germany, but it remains a common catch around the Baltic and in Danube waters — check the local rules before fishing for it.

European Smelt

Osmerus eperlanus

A small, translucent silvery fish of cold northern lakes, Baltic lagoons and lower river reaches — Stint in German, stynka in Polish. It is famous for the strong cucumber smell of a fresh fish. This is a different species from North America's rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax). Around the Baltic it is an ice-fishing and spring-spawning classic; many populations are freshwater fish for their whole lives and never run to sea.

European Flounder

Platichthys flesus

The estuary flatfish of the Baltic and Wadden Sea — rough, warty and one of the few sea fish that tolerate fresh water and run far up rivers in summer. Its rough skin separates it from the smooth, orange-spotted plaice. Flunder in German, flet in French.