I looked up a reference to whitebait (they are about 1.5", or 40mm, long from nose to tail), and it suggests that they are the fry of herring or sprat, so I guess they use more than one fish, perhaps in different parts of the world.

If they are fry then that does'nt do much to help reduce the overfishing problem, does it. Maybe I should stop eating them on principle.....mmmm.....maybe not.

dxb