“…Mature individuals mate at the end of the first year of life (Stratoudakis and Silva, 2001) and the most active spawning period occurs when the temperature is comprised between 14 and 16 • C, which usually corresponds to winter and spring (Chícharo, 1998;Nunes et al, 2011). The physiological condition of S. pilchardus seems to be linked to its reproductive cycle (Amenzoui et al, 2006;Garrido et al, 2008;Nunes et al, 2011). Literature on the use of S. pilchardus as an environmental sentinel has shown its contamination by anthropogenic compounds, namely metals (Canli and Atli, 2003;Cabañero et al, 2005;Falcó et al, 2006), but also polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and pesticides (Amado et al, 2006;Antunes et al, 2007;El Morsy et al, 2013).…”