The European pilchard, Sardina pilchardus, is widely distributed in the Northeast and Eastern Central Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Although there seems to be an independent stock in the Adriatic Sea, the stock structure is not clear in the rest of the Mediterranean (Caballero-Huertas et al. 2022).

The General Fisheries Commission of the Mediterranean (GFCM) assesses the status of the species in some of the GSA areas, such as the Northern Alboran Sea (GSA 01), and the Northern Spain (Mediterranean; GSA 06), but not in other such as Balearic Islands (GSA 05; this profile).

Management in the GFMC area is performed by the different coastal countries and the GFCM.