Sand-Eels

sand-eels small silvery fish of the genera Ammodytes and Gymnammodytes, are widely distributed and numerous in the northern hemisphere, but commonly destined to furnish food for other fish, or to be turned into fish meal, rather than for human consumption.

In the N. Atlantic, Ammodytes tobianus is the common inshore species, while A. marinus is its offshore counterpart. Most authorities distinguish A. americanus as the N. American sand-eel. It belongs to the eastern seaboard; the corresponding species of the Pacific north-west is A. hexapterus, with a range extending as far as Japan.