Dictionary:

capelin

  (kăp'ə-lĭn, kăp'lĭn) also caplin (kăp'lĭn)

A small edible marine fish (Mallotus villosus) of northern Atlantic and Pacific waters, related to and resembling the smelt.

[Canadian French capelan, from French, codfish, from Old Provençal, from Medieval Latin cappelānus. See chaplain.]

Mallotus villosus

FAMILY

Osmeridae

TAXONOMY

Mallotus villosus Muller, 1776, Iceland.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Whitefish, lodde; French: Capelan atlantique; German: Lodde; Spanish: Capelan.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Total length about 9.8 in (25 cm). Small, moderately deep bodied; dorsal fin medially placed; adipose fin with long base. Body covered in small scales. Olive dorsally, silver laterally and ventrally. Enlarged pectoral and anal fins; two ridges of enlarged scales along each side of body in breeding males.

DISTRIBUTION

Circumpolar in the Arctic, North Atlantic, and North Pacific Oceans.

HABITAT

Marine. Oceanic moving into coastal seas to spawn. Found down to about 985 ft (300 m).

BEHAVIOR

Little is known.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

All stages feed on zooplankton and small benthic organisms such as euphausiid shrimps, copepods, amphipods, and worms. Predators such as rays, a range of bony fishes, seabirds, seals, whales, and dolphins take an estimated 3.3 million tons (3 million metric tons) in the northwest Atlantic.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Forms massive spawning aggregations over shallow banks. Spawns over a two to three month period between March and October, depending on location. Two males flank and hold a female with enlarged fins and scale ridges until she releases her eggs, they then release the sperm. Females release up to 12,000 adhesive eggs. Many individuals survive to spawn in more than one year, although most spawning animals are in year three or four. Many fish spawning along shorelines, particularly males, become stranded on beaches and die.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not listed by the IUCN.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Very important in commercial, recreational, and traditional fisheries throughout the range. In 1998 the commercial fishery in the northwest Atlantic was estimated at 121,000 tons (110,000 metric tons). Marketed fresh, frozen, salted, dried, smoked, as fish meal (males), and roe (females).

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: very small northern fish; forage for sea birds and marine mammals and other fishes
  Synonyms: capelan, caplin

Capelin
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Order: Osmeriformes Family: Osmeridae Genus: Mallotus Species: M. villosus
Binomial name
Mallotus villosus Müller, 1776

This article is about the fish. For the plant genus, see Mallotus (plant).

The capelin, Mallotus villosus, is a small fish of the smelt family found in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. In summer, it grazes on dense swarms of plankton at the edge of the ice shelf. Larger capelin also eats a great deal of krill and other crustaceans. Whales, seals, cod, squid, mackerel and seabirds all prey on capelin in particular during the spawning season of the capelin while it migrates southwards. Capelin spawns on sandy beaches and sandy bottom at the age of 2-6 years, and has an extremely high mortality rate on the beaches after spawning, for males close to 100% mortality.

Capelin on an Icelandic coin.

Females reach 20 cm in length, while males are up to 25 cm long. They are olive-colored dorsally, shading to silver on sides. Males have a translucent ridge on both sides of their bodies. The ventral aspects of the females iridesce reddish at the time of spawn.

In years with large quantities of herring in the Barents Sea, capelin seems to be heavily affected. Probably both food competition and herring feeding on capelin larvae lead to collapses in the capelin stock.

Commercially capelin is used for fish meal and oil industry products, but is also appreciated as food. The flesh is agreeable in flavor, resembling herring. Capelin roe ("masago") is considered as a high value product, particularly in Japan.

Capelin is essential as the key food of the Atlantic cod. The North-East Atlantic Cod and Capelin fisheries therefore are managed by a multi-species approach developed by the main resource owners Norway and Russia.

In the province of Newfoundland in Canada, it is a regular summertime practice to go to the beach and scoop the capelin up in nets or whatever is available, as the capelin " roll in " in the millions each year at end of June or early July.

Capelin migration

Distribution and migration of Icelandic capelin

Green shade: Feeding area of adults
Blue shade: Distribution of juveniles
Green arrows: Feeding migrations
Blue arrows: Return migrations
Red shade and Red arrows: Spawning migrations - Main spawning grounds and larval drift routes

Capelin moves inshore in large schools to spawn and migrates in spring and summer to feed in the plankton-rich oceanic area between Iceland, Greenland, and Jan Mayen. Capelin distribution and migration is linked with ocean currents and water masses. Around Iceland maturing capelin usually undertake extensive northward feeding migrations in spring and summer and the return migration takes place in September to November. The spawning migration starts from north of Iceland in December to January.

References

• Mallotus villosus (TSN 162035). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 11 March 2006.
• "Mallotus villosus". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. 10 2005 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2005.
• Capelin off Iceland: Biology, exploitation and management
• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 edition of The Grocer's Encyclopedia.

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