The lesser sand eel or sand lance (''Ammodytes tobianus'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

in the sand lance

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Ammodytidae. It is an elongated cylindrical fish which may be up to long.

Description

The body of the lesser sand eel has an elongated shape with a rounded cross section. The head is also elongated and pointed, and the sharp prominent lower

jaw The jaws are a pair of opposable articulated structures at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term ''jaws'' is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth ...

projects further than the upper jaw. When the mouth is opened, the two jaws form a tube through which food is sucked in. The top of the fish's mouth lacks

teeth A tooth (: teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, tear ...

. The

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

of the belly make a chevron pattern. The dorsal fin is long and ribbon-like, the

pectoral fins Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only b ...

are small and low set, and there are no

pelvic fins Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral (belly) surface of fish, and are the lower of the only two sets of paired fins (the other being the laterally positioned pectoral fins). The pelvic fins are homologous to the hi ...

. The

caudal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

is bifurcated in shape. The skin color is greenish yellow on the back, yellowish on the upper sides, and a mixture of a brilliant

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

on the lower sides and belly. This fish can be distinguished from the

greater sand eel The great sand eel (''Hyperoplus lanceolatus'') is the largest species of sand eel. The maximum size is . Description The great sand eel has an elongated body, with a rounded cross section. It has a long, pointed head, and a protruding lower jaw ...

by its smaller size (less than ) and the fact that the origin of the long dorsal fin starts approximately in line with the tip of the pectoral fin.

Behavior

Breeding Breeding is sexual reproduction that produces offspring, usually animals or plants. It can only occur between a male and a female animal or plant. Breeding may refer to: * Animal husbandry, through selected specimens such as dogs, horses, and rab ...

, can vary to which race they are native, and usually happens from February to April, or from September through into November. Adult forms become mature in 1 to 2 years (8 cm+), and will live 7 years or more. It habitates from mid-tide level below to around 30m in inshore waters, that have clean and sandy bottoms. It is commonly found swimming in huge

shoals In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or ...

and rapidly burrows in sand if alarmed. It is nocturnal, spending the day buried in the sand and emerging at dusk to feed. It eats

zooplankton Zooplankton are the heterotrophic component of the planktonic community (the " zoo-" prefix comes from ), having to consume other organisms to thrive. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequent ...

, larvae of fish,

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s, and other smaller invertebrates. In addition, it is found all throughout the coasts of the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

. Sand eels are an important part of the diet of many seabirds. Excessive fishing of sand eels on an industrial scale in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

has been linked to a decline in the breeding success of

kittiwake The kittiwakes (genus ''Rissa'') are two closely related seabird species in the gull family Laridae, the black-legged kittiwake (''Rissa tridactyla'') and the red-legged kittiwake (''Rissa brevirostris''). The epithets "black-legged" and "red- ...

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae, subfamily Sterninae, that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated in eleven genera in a subgroup of the family Laridae, which also ...

fulmar The fulmars are tube-nosed seabirds in the family Procellariidae. The family includes two extant species, and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene. Fulmars superficially resemble gulls, but are readily distinguished by their flight on s ...

s and shags.

References

Bibliography

"The 2004 breeding season will go down as the worst in living memory for Fair Isle’s seabirds (Table 2). Numbers of birds attempting to breed were at their lowest levels for many species (Table 1) and very few chicks were seen. Common Guillemot, Razorbill, Black-legged Kittiwake, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern and Common Tern all failed to fledge any young whilst just a single Great Skua fledged from a pitiful 96 AOT (Apparently Occupied Territories). As in most years of poor productivity, it is a lack of Lesser Sandeel (the staple diet of nearly all seabirds in Shetland) that is at the root of the problem." * Svenning, M.-A., Borgstrøm, R., Dehli, T.O., Moen, G., Pedersen, T., Barrett, R.T. & Vader, W. 2005. Large numbers of lesser sandeel (Ammodytes marinus) available as prey for marine fishes enhance the survival of Atlantic salmon smolts (Salmo salar) as they leave the Tana river, North Norway. - Fisheries Research 76: 466–474.
Fishmeal Production
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1536887 Ammodytidae Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus ru:Песчанки (род рыб)