Yes. The true sardine is
sardina pilchardus. It is found in the Mediterranean; you will find it on the menu throughout the region.
The ones that are canned and exported are small juveniles. The adults measure a fair sized 20cms ( 8 inches ) long, so you'd never get them into the cans; just think of the problems that would cause . Larger juveniles,known in Britain as pilchards are, invariably, canned in tomato sauce for our market (which fact suggests nothing you didn't already know about our traditional cuisine
)
The Northern French and Northern Europeans, of course, regard fresh sardines as a delicacy and a holiday treat, the fish not being found in cold waters, and so these fish appear on almost every menu in tourist restaurants down on the Med.
No doubt European settlers applied the name sardine to any small, edible fish that resembled it. The fish known commercially here as 'sild' found off Norway are either young herrings or the sprat (
sprattus sp. ) Sprats look just like sardines when young. This alone, being a common coldwater fish, must have relatives in American waters and so the name could readily have been transferred to that, as happened between other creatures of the Old World e.g robin.
