Alosa served as the focal point of John McPhee's book "The Founding Fish". The roe, or more properly the entire engorged uterus of the American shad—filled with ripening eggs, sautéed in clarified butter and garnished with parsley and a slice of lemon—is considered a great delicacy, and commands high prices when available. Alosa Alosa is a genus of fish, the river herrings, in the family Clupeidae. Along with other genera in the subfamily Alosinae, they are generally known as shads. They are distinct from other herrings by having a deeper body and spawning in rivers. Several species can be found on
Rockhead (fish) Rockhead (fish) The rockhead ("Bothragonus swanii"), also known as the deep-pitted poacher or deep-pitted sea-poacher, is a fish in the poacher family, Agonidae. It was described by Franz Steindachner in 1876, originally in the genus "Hypsagonus". It is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Alaska to Carmel Bay, California down to depths of 18 metres. It can also inhabit the intertidal zone. Males can reach a maximum total length of 8.9 centimetres. The species epithet ""swanii"" refers to James G. Swan of Port Townsend, Washington. The rockhead spawns nearshore, during the months of January–May in the California Current region.