Anchovies as food Anchovies as food Anchovies are a family (Engraulidae) of small, common salt-water forage fish. There are 144 species in 17 genera, found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Anchovies are usually classified as an oily fish. They are small, green fish with blue reflections due to a silver longitudinal stripe that runs from the base of the caudal fin. They range from to in adult length, and the body shape is variable with more slender fish in northern populations. A traditional method of processing and preserving anchovies is to gut and salt them in brine, allow them to mature,
Northern whiting brown, or honey coloured. The underside of the fish is usually paler, being brown to white in colour. A silver midlateral, longitudinal stripe is normally present. The dorsal fins are dusky on each end, with or without rows of dark brown spots on the second dorsal fin membranes. The caudal fin is dusky terminally, and there is no dark blotch at the base of the pectoral fin as in other sillaginids. All other fins are hyaline, but the anal fin occasionally has a whitish margin. The northern whiting is the most geographically widespread of the Sillaginidae, but is still confined