sand lances , także: sandlances
ammodytidae latin

Ammodytes is a genus of sand lances native to the northern oceans.

Sand lances have chameleon-like independent eye movements.

Protammodytes is a genus of sand lances found in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Ammodytidae (sand lances)

Sand lances are most commonly encountered by fishermen in the North Pacific and North Atlantic, but are found in oceans throughout the world.

As adults, sand lances are harvested commercially in some areas (primarily in Europe), leading to direct human competition with diving birds such as puffins, auks, and cormorants.

Sand eels, also called sand lances, are an extraordinarily prolific species highly favored by terns and many species of fish, including blues, stripers, Atlantic bonito and mackerel.

After the detection of radioactive cesium above legal limits in Sand lances caught off the coast of Ibaraki Prefecture, the government of the prefecture banned such fishing.

Gymnammodytes is a genus of sand lances native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the southwestern Indian Ocean along the coast of Africa.

Some species are inshore coastal dwellers, and digging for sand lances to use as a bait fish has been a popular pastime in coastal areas of Europe and North America.

Polychaete worms are also an important prey item, while other invertebrates (including isopods, bivalves, squid, sea squirts, and copepods) and small benthic fishes (including sand lances, herring, cunners, and cod) are rarely taken.

It chases down pelagic fishes such as lancet fish, mackerel, pilchards, herring, and sauries and forages near the bottom for groundfishes such as cod, hake, icefish, dories, sand lances, lumpsuckers, and flatfish.

The three genera listed above all fall within the family Ammodytidae, the sandlances.

A sand lance or sandlance is a fish belonging to the family Ammodytidae.

Bleekeria, a genus of fishes in the family Ammodytidae.

Raitt's sand eel, Ammodytes marinus, is a fish in the Ammodytidae family.

Gymnammodytes cicerelus, also known as Mediterranean sand eel, sonso in Catalan, and as barrinaire or enfú in Minorca, is a fish in the Ammodytidae family.