The fish resembles a sprat in having a forked tail and a single dorsal fin, but the body is round and slender.

[1] European anchovies eat plankton, mostly copepods and the eggs and larvae of fish, molluscs, and cirripedes.

The hatched larvae are transparent and grow rapidly; a year later, in the unlikely event that they survive, they will be 9–10 cm (3.5–3.9 in) long.

They are regularly caught on the coasts of Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Albania, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine.

In winter it is common off Devon and Cornwall (United Kingdom), but has not hitherto been caught in such numbers as to be of commercial importance.

There is reason to believe that anchovies at the western end of the English Channel in November and December migrate from the Zuiderzee and the Scheldt in the autumn, returning there the following spring.

They were believed to be an isolated population, for none come from the south in summer to occupy the English Channel, though the species does exist off the coast of Portugal.

In August young specimens, c. 38 to 89 mm (1+1⁄2 to 3+1⁄2 in) in length, are found in the Zuiderzee, and these must derive from the previous summer's spawning.

There is no evidence to decide the question whether all the young anchovies as well as the adults leave the Zuiderzee in autumn, but, considering the winter temperature there, it is probable that they do.

The occurrence of anchovies in the English Channel has been carefully studied at the Marine Biological Association Laboratory in Plymouth.

In areas around the Black Sea, the European anchovy is called gávros (Γαύρος) in Greek, hamsie in Romanian, ქაფშია (Kapshia) or ქაფშა (Kapsha) in Georgian, hamsi in Turkish, hapsi in Pontic dialect of Turkish, hapsia (plural) in Pontic Greek, Hapchia in Laz,[8] хамсия (hamsiya) in Bulgarian, and хамса (hamsa) in Russian and Ukrainian.

Its Ancient Greek name was ἀφύη, aphýē, later Latinized into apiuva, hence the standard Italian acciuga and the Croatian inćun through the Genoese dialectal anciúa.

Modern Greek also uses αντζούγια antsúya, a variant of the Genoese form, for processed – as opposed to the fresh gávros – anchovy products.

In Turkey, it is the staple food of the local Black Sea cuisine,[9] widely used in pan dishes, baked goods, even as dessert.

In Bulgaria hamsiya is traditionally fried and served in cheap fast-food restaurants along the shore, typically with beer.

Anchovy populations in the Mediterranean were severely depleted in the 1980s by the invasive comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi which eats the eggs and young, they have since stabilized albeit at a much lower level.

European anchovies are commercially important down the west coast of Africa, although they are most abundant at the north end of this range.

[5] Some past declines have been due to environmental problems, local overfishing, and invasive species from ballast water.