One single anchovy

Found on the beach: a single small anchovy, its silver flanks and dark back glinting among the shingle. At first sight, one might mistake it for whitebait (which can often be beach-stranded en masse this time of year), but that term refers to the fry (juvenile) of sprat, herring, sardine or anchovy taken at only a few centimetres long. This specimen is a near-adult European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus, identified by its projecting lower jaw, large eye and elongated body. Famous as the salty little fish you find on pizzas, anchovies are small and oily with a strong flavour. Widely used in Mediterranean cooking, they are also a key ingredient in Worcestershire Sauce. 

The European anchovy spawns from spring to autumn, releasing planktonic eggs that hatch within one to three days. The larvae feed on plankton and grow rapidly, reaching around ten centimetres within a year. Sexual maturity comes at about twelve centimetres, and most individuals live no longer than three years. They form large coastal shoals, moving to shallower water in summer and deeper in winter, and are a key forage species for seabirds, larger fish and marine mammals.

Commercially they are fished across the Mediterranean and Atlantic using purse seines and trawls, and are marketed fresh, dried, salted, smoked, canned and frozen. They are also processed into fishmeal and oil. Its strong flavour, developed especially in salting, has given it an enduring place in European cuisine. In the Mediterranean it is a major fishery; in British waters it is less heavily taken, but records exist along the Channel coast. The UK shore-caught record stands at a modest forty-nine grams off Hastings. The maximum recorded length is about twenty centimetres, although most range between ten and fifteen.

In 2009 - according to a report on the British Sea Fishing website - unusual climatic conditions brought exceptional numbers of European anchovies to the south west coast of England. Local trawlers quickly switched to the species and were landing tons each day in what was described as an anchovy ‘gold rush’. More on anchovies can be found at Wikipedia, Fishbase, and the Cornwall Good Seafood Guide.