Atlantic herring

Herring live in the cold North Atlantic Ocean.

They swim near the coasts of North America and Europe.

Atlantic herring live on both sides of the North Atlantic Ocean. In North America they are found from Labrador in Canada down to North Carolina. In Europe they live from the Bay of Biscay north to Iceland, Norway and the Arctic, and in the Baltic Sea.

Herring live in coastal waters and over the continental shelf, the shallow sea floor around the edge of a continent. Adults swim anywhere from shallow water about 20 meters deep down to about 200 meters.

The IUCN gives a range from the northern Bay of Biscay to Iceland and southern Greenland, east to Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, including the Baltic Sea, and in the west from southwestern Greenland and Labrador south to South Carolina; NOAA Fisheries puts the western limit at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

The species is benthopelagic, living near the bottom and in the water column of coastal and continental shelf waters, from the surface to about 200 meters. NOAA notes that adults use shallow inshore waters of about 20 meters as well as offshore waters up to 200 meters deep. Several populations spawn at different times of year, which the IUCN lists as the winter-spawning Norwegian and Icelandic herrings, the autumn-spawning Icelandic and North Sea herrings, and the Baltic herrings.

Herring eat tiny animals that float in the sea.

These tiny animals are called plankton. Herring often eat at night.

Herring eat plankton: tiny animals that drift in the water, such as copepods, krill and baby fish. Herring are filter feeders, which means they strain food from the water as they swim.

They usually feed at night. During the day, many plankton animals stay in deep, dark water. At night they rise toward the surface, and the herring follow them up to eat.

Atlantic herring feed on zooplankton, krill and fish larvae (NOAA Fisheries); the IUCN says copepods dominate the diet. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission describes them as filter feeders that prey entirely on plankton.

Feeding follows the daily vertical migration of zooplankton, which stays deep by day and rises to surface waters at night. The IUCN notes that herring migrate up the water column at night to feed in shallower water. By turning plankton into fish, herring connect the bottom of the food web to the many predators that eat them.

Herring swim together in huge groups called schools.

They travel to find food, to lay eggs and to spend the winter.

Herring spend their lives in schools. Schools travel to the places where they feed, where they lay eggs and where they spend the winter.

Off the coast of the United States, adult herring swim south after spawning in summer and fall in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank, to spend the winter off southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic coast.

Herring are oceanodromous, migrating within the sea between feeding, spawning and wintering areas. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission reports that adults three years and older move south from summer and fall spawning grounds in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank to winter in southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic.

Juveniles are heavily preyed upon because they are small and abundant (NOAA Fisheries), and herring numbers naturally vary a great deal from year to year. The IUCN notes that very large year classes, groups of fish born in a single year, were produced in 1994, 1998 and 2002.

People catch lots of herring.

In some places there are fewer herring than there should be. Rules help keep enough herring in the sea.

People have caught herring for hundreds of years. In the 1970s so many were caught that herring numbers crashed, and fishing limits were brought in to help them recover.

Today herring are still fished for food and for bait used to catch lobsters, crabs and tuna. Off the northeastern United States, a 2026 check found the herring population overfished, which means too few are left, even though today's fishing is not too heavy. Rules such as catch limits and closing areas when herring spawn are meant to help them come back.

The IUCN listed the species as Least Concern (assessed February 2009, flagged as needing updating), noting that global landings fell from about 4.1 million tonnes in 1966 to about 0.9 million tonnes in 1979, a decline attributed to overfishing, before stocks recovered under catch limits.

In U.S. waters, NOAA Fisheries states that according to the 2024 stock assessment Atlantic herring is overfished but not subject to overfishing, with a rebuilding plan targeting 2031. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission reports that the June 2026 management track assessment, with data through 2025, reached the same status: spawning stock biomass of 35,528 metric tons in 2025, far below the 188,214-ton target, driven by continued poor recruitment. Management includes spawning closures, quotas and a 2026 annual catch limit of 9,134 metric tons.