Sardine
Depth: 30 m · Sunlight Zone
Sardines swim in huge schools that move through the water like a silvery cloud. Packed tightly together, millions of fish look like one single big animal, which makes it hard for hunters to pick out just one. They filter tiny plankton from the water.
For scientists
Sardines (Sardina pilchardus and relatives) are schooling filter feeders that sieve plankton from the water with fine gill rakers. Their schooling follows simple rules: each fish keeps its distance and heading from its nearest neighbors using its eyes and lateral line, and from that the flowing motion of the whole group emerges. Under attack they pack into spherical bait balls, where a single fish is almost impossible for a predator to single out.
Source: Wikipedia
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