Species: Ammodytes hexapterus
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
A small coastal forage fish with an elongate, compressed body. Metallic blue dorsally and silver ventrally, this fish routinely burrows into several centimeters of sand or gravel substrate. Identifiable features include absence of teeth and swim bladder, deeply forked caudal fin, lateral line high on the body, small cycloid scales and long, slender gill rakers. This species has a single dorsal fin which folds back into a groove, and projecting premaxilla and lower jaw. A fleshy ridge extending the length of the body on either side of the ventral midline is also sometimes present (Mecklenburg et al. 2002).
Science Review:
Articles:
Some of the most important fish in the Salish Sea food web are also the most mysterious. Researchers have only begun to understand how many there are, where they go, and how we can preserve their populations for the future. A University of Washington researcher describes how scientists are looking into the problem.
A significant number of Puget Sound property owners have been altering their shorelines without required permits. A new report suggests that state and local regulators should increase enforcement and make penalties more costly for violators.
Where shoreline bulkheads remain in place, the loss of spawning habitat used by surf smelt is likely to reach 80 percent.
A 2015 article published in the Marine Ecology Progress Series identifies intraspecific differences in diet between harbor seals in the Salish Sea, suggesting implications for marine reserve management.
Why did all the grebes leave? Where did they go? And what does their disappearance say about the health of the Salish Sea? Seasonal declines among some regional bird species could hold important clues to the overall health of the ecosystem.
Forage fish represent a critical link in the Puget Sound food web and help to sustain key species like salmon, marine mammals and sea birds. But the region’s forage fish may be vulnerable on a variety of fronts, according to a new study panel report from the University of Washington Puget Sound Institute. Download the panel's summary and proposed research plan.
Download presentations from the Study Panel on Ecosystem-based Management of Forage Fish held August 25, 2013 at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Lab, San Juan Island.
This is the executive summary from a technical report produced for the Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership on Valued Ecosystem Components (VEC). The entire document is included as a PDF with this summary.
Forage fish occupy every marine and estuarine nearshore habitat in Washington, and much of the intertidal and shallow subtidal areas of the Puget Sound Basin are used by these species for spawning habitat.
Classification
Actinopterygii
Perciformes
Ammodytidae
Ammodytes
NatureServe
Classification
Ecology and Life History
A small coastal forage fish with an elongate, compressed body. Metallic blue dorsally and silver ventrally, this fish routinely burrows into several centimeters of sand or gravel substrate. Identifiable features include absence of teeth and swim bladder, deeply forked caudal fin, lateral line high on the body, small cycloid scales and long, slender gill rakers. This species has a single dorsal fin which folds back into a groove, and projecting premaxilla and lower jaw. A fleshy ridge extending the length of the body on either side of the ventral midline is also sometimes present (Mecklenburg et al. 2002).