Species: Ammodytes hexapterus

Pacific Sand Lance

    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:

    The secret lives of forage fish: Where do they go when we aren’t looking?

    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.

    Pacific sand lance at rest on sand. Photo: Collin Smith, USGS. https://www.flickr.com/photos/usgeologicalsurvey/13378704834
    Studies point to gap in permits for shoreline armoring

    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.

    Chart: Local shoreline changes in King County (2012-13). Source: King County, 2014
    Spawning habitat for forage fish being lost to rising tides

    Where shoreline bulkheads remain in place, the loss of spawning habitat used by surf smelt is likely to reach 80 percent.

    Spawning Surf Smelt. Fidalgo Bay. Photo: Copyright Jon Michael https://www.flickr.com/photos/-jon/5892559865
    Foraging differences between male and female harbor seals present challenges for fisheries management

    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. 

    Harbor seal photographed by Andreas Trepte. Available through a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.5 license.
    Declines in marine birds trouble scientists

    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.

    Western grebe. Public Pier, Blaine, WA. Photo: Andrew Reding https://www.flickr.com/photos/seaotter/10298390254
    Study panel on ecosystem-based management of forage fish in Puget Sound

    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.

    Photo courtesy of USGS
    Presentations: 2013 study panel on ecosystem-based management of forage fish in Puget Sound

    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.

    Marine forage fishes in Puget Sound

    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.

    Pacific herring. Photo courtesy of NOAA.
    Forage fish in Puget Sound

    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.

    Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii). Image courtesy of NOAA.
    Kingdom
    Animalia
    Phylum
    Craniata
    Class

    Actinopterygii

    Order

    Perciformes

    Family

    Ammodytidae

    Genus

    Ammodytes

    Classification
    Other Global Common Names
    lançon gourdeau
    Informal Taxonomy
    Animals, Vertebrates - Fishes - Bony Fishes - Other Bony Fishes
    Formal Taxonomy
    Animalia - Craniata - Actinopterygii - Perciformes - Ammodytidae - Ammodytes - relies on meristic characters such as the number of vertebrate or protein characterization with electrophoresis; this has led to some confusion in the scientific literature about species names and geographic ranges (McGurk and Warburton 1992).

    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).

    Short General Description
    A small fish.
    Habitat Type Description
    Marine
    Migration
    false - false - false - Spawning appears to occur within habitat occupied by this species year-round, and no spawning migrations have been observed; however, offshore-onshore movements occur before spawning in the fall (Robards et al. 1999d). Exhibits high site fidelity to spawning locations, although eggs and larvae are subject to limited movement by water currents and tides.
    Non-migrant
    false
    Locally Migrant
    false
    Food Comments
    Larvae feed on phytoplankton and early zooplankton stages. Adults feed in large schools, consuming mainly copepod zooplankton within relatively short distances of fish burrowing habitat (Hobson 1986). Epibenthic invertebrates become more important in diet during autumn and winter. Adults also feed on herring (<i>Clupea harengus</i>) larvae and eggs, and may feed in mixed aggregations with herring and Pink salmon (<i>O. gorbuscha</i>) (Sturdevant et al. 2000).
    Reproduction Comments
    Spawns intertidally and possibly subtidally once a year within proximity of burrowing habitat: in Alaska, from late August through October (Robards et al. 1999b); in Puget Sound, Washington, as late as mid February (Penttila 1997). Spawning has been documented in the same locations for decades (Robards et al. 1999b). Robards et al. (1999b) found age 1 (50%) and age 2 (31%) fish dominated spawning schools in the Gulf of Alaska and ages 3, 4, 5 and 6 made up 14, 4, 1 and < 1%, respectively, of the overall spawning school composition. Female fecundity is proportional to length, ranging from around 1,400 to 16,080 ova per female. Spawns vigorously in dense formations, leaving scoured pits in beach sediments. Slightly adhesive eggs are deposited in the intertidal zone just below the water line, and in some areas of Alaska in the subtidal zone (McGurk and Warburton 1992). Embryos develop in up to 67 days, often through periods of intertidal exposure and sub-freezing air temperatures (Robards et al. 1999d).
    Ecology Comments
    Considered a key prey species for many marine predators including birds, fishes and mammals because of its high energy content (Mabry 2000). Predators include commercially valued species such as halibut (<i>Hippoglossus</i> spp.), rockfish (<i>Sebastes</i> spp.) and salmon (<i>Oncorhynchus</i> spp.) as well as seabirds such as the Rhinoceros Auklet (<i>Cerorhinca monocerata</i>), Double-crested Cormorant (<i>Phalacrocorax auritus</i>) and Red-throated Loon (<i>Gavia stellata</i>) and marine mammals including the Steller sea lion (<i>Eumetopias jubatus</i>), fur seal (<i>Callorhinus ursinus</i>) and humpback whale (<i>Megaptera novaeangliae</i>) (Field 1987). The recovery of a Pigeon Guillemot (<i>Cepphus columba</i>) colony in Prince William Sound, Alaska, appears to be limited by the availability of sand lance (Golet et al. 2002). Sand lance availability may also affect the reproductive output of Common Murres (<i>Uria aalge</i>) (Piatt and Anderson 1996). This euryhaline and eurythermic species has a short life span (up to 7 yrs), a large number of predators, and probably has correspondingly high rates of mortality, growth and fecundity (Fritz et al. 1993). Defense tactics used against predation include burrowing into soft, wet sand in the intertidal/subtidal zones and contraction of the fish school into a ball of closely packed fish (Robards et al. 1999d).
    NatureServe Global Status Rank
    G5
    Global Status Last Reviewed
    2008-01-11
    Global Status Last Changed
    2006-02-22
    Conservation Status Map
    <img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?CA.BC=SNR&CA.NT=SNR&US.AK=S5" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
    Global Range
    Throughout the coastal North Pacific; in the Sea of Japan and Sea of Okhotsk in the western North Pacific and the Beaufort Sea south to Balboa Island (near Baja California) in the eastern North Pacific.
    ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.101934