Wikipedia

Noun

Singular capelin

Plural capelins

capelin (plural capelins)

1. A small fish of the smelt family found in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, Mallotus villosus.

The capelin or caplin, Mallotus villosus, is a small forage 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 eat a great deal of krill and other crustaceans. Whales, seals, cod, squid, mackerel, beluga whales and seabirds all prey on capelin in particular during the spawning season of the capelin while it migrates southwards. Capelin spawn on sandy beaches and sandy bottom at the age of 2-6 years, and have an extremely high mortality rate on the beaches after spawning, for males close to 100% mortality.

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. It is also commonly mixed with wasabi and sold as "wasabi caviar."

Capelin is an important forage fish, and 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 provinces of Québec (particularly in the Gaspé peninsula) and Newfoundland and Labrador 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 the end of June or in early July.