The European sprat (Sprattus sprattus), also known as brisling, brisling sardine, bristling, garvie, garvock, Russian sardine, russlet, skipper or whitebait, is a species of small marine fish in the herring family Clupeidae.

[3] Found in European, West Asian and North African waters, it has silver grey scales and white-grey flesh.

The lower jaw projects slightly, there are seldom any vomerine teeth on the roof of the mouth and the hind edge of the gill covers is smoothly rounded, without any fleshy protuberances.

It occurs both in open water well away from the coast and in bays and estuaries, being able to tolerate salinities as low as 4 parts per thousand.

[5] This fish is sometimes parasitised by a copepod, the sprat eye-maggot (Lernaeenicus sprattae) which burrows into its eye and causes loss of visual acuity or even blindness.

It is mostly caught by trawling and is made into fish meal, canned, smoked, and eaten fresh; cooking methods include pan-frying and broiling.

Canned sprats (usually smoked) are available in many north European countries, including the Baltic states, Scandinavia, Ireland, Germany, Poland and Russia.