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,
Echeneis neucratoides surface of the fish is dark brown to black, as is a broad longitudinal lateral stripe which extends from the eye through the pectoral fin to the caudal peduncle. The other parts of the fish are silvery-grey. The dorsal, pectoral and caudal fins are dark with whitish margins, particularly at the front of the fins. This fish occurs in the subtropical western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, within an area bounded by 43°N and 4°N, and 98°W and 51°W that stretches from Massachusetts to the northern coast of South America, including the Bahamas and the Antilles.