Alewife
Scientific name: Alosa pseudoharengus (Wilson, 1811)
Overview
The alewife or river herring is a species of herring found in North America. It is commonly anadromous but there are also significant landlocked populations. It is one of the smaller species of shad, of the subgenus Pomolobus. As an adult it is a marine species found in the northern West Atlantic Ocean, moving into estuaries before swimming upstream to breed in freshwater habitats, but some populations live entirely in fresh water.
From the Wikipedia article “Alewife (fish)”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Conservation status
Least concern on the IUCN Red List, as recorded on Wikidata, citing The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2.
Common names
Also known in English as ale-wife, gaspareau, gaspereau, sawbellies.
Names in other languages (6)
- Chinese
- 灰西鯡
- French
- gaspareau
- Japanese
- エールワイフ
- Persian
- شاهماهی رودخانهای آمریکا
- Russian
- Сероспинка
- Urdu
- بوزہ مچھلی
Related animals
Sources
-
Catalogue of Life — scientific name, classification, common names.
Version 2026-09-11, CC BY 4.0.
This species in the Catalogue of Life.
Citation
Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Aedo, C., Aescht, E., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (Version 2026-09-11). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgz5n Source database: FishBase.
- GBIF — species page and recorded occurrences.
- Wikidata — conservation status, names in other languages. Q659283, CC0 1.0.
- Wikipedia — overview, from the article “Alewife (fish)”, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
Last updated: 4 October 2026