Known as anchoa or boquerón in Spanish, it has an elongated and slender body, bluish in colour, with a mottled silver belly and a silver band along the flank, which fades with age. With a single dorsal fin and a forked caudal fin, it has a larger upper jaw than the lower one. The european anchovy can reach up to 20 cm in length. In winter it lives in deep waters, around 100 m deep.From April to June, it approaches the coast in large shoals, this being the best season to eat it.