Common bleak Common bleak The common bleak ("Alburnus alburnus") is a small freshwater coarse fish of the cyprinid family. The body of the bleak is elongated and flat. The head is pointed and the relatively small mouth is turned upwards. The anal fin is long and has 18 to 23 fin rays. The lateral line is complete. The bleak has a shiny silvery colour; and the fins are pointed and colourless. The maximum length is approximately 25 cm. In Europe the bleak can easily be confused with many other species. In England, young common bream and silver bream can be confused with
Common minke whale auditory meatus, while dark or light speckling or streaking can occur along the flanks as well as what are called "tiger stripes" – "parallel, dark, usually vertical stripes". Like Bryde's whale (and occasionally blue and fin whales), dwarf minkes can exhibit auxiliary ridges on either side of the central ridge of the rostrum. Common minke whales have a disjointed distribution. In the North Atlantic, they occur as far north as Baffin Bay, Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, and Novaya Zemlya and as far south as 40°N (New Jersey) and the Hebrides and central North Sea during summer. There are a few