Alewife is used in the Chesapeake Bay as a name for menhaden, which is confusing. Menhaden is an oily fish of American Atlantic waters, it has a large head with no scales and a blotch just behind the operculum with more irregular dots behind. Its back is dark, with blue or green or brown shades, and the sides are silver with a bronze sheen. Menhaden are used mainly for fertiliser or as bait being almost too oily for human consumption, though they have been tinned under various misleading names.
