Sand eel or sandeel is the common name used for a considerable number of species of fish. Most of them are sea fish of the genera Hyperoplus (greater sandeels), Gymnammodytes or Ammodytes. Many species are found off the western coasts of Europe from Spain to Scotland, and in the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas.
The three genera listed above all fall within the family Ammodytidae, the sandlances. Members of these genera found in other oceans are not usually called Sand Eels, and species from other parts of the world that are known as sandeels are usually less closely related. None of the Sand Eels are related to the true eels.
Sandeels are an important food source for seabirds, including puffins and kittiwakes.
Read more about Sand Eel: Habitat, Commercial Fishing
Famous quotes containing the word sand:
“This sand seemed to us the connecting link between land and water. It was a kind of water on which you could walk, and you could see the ripple-marks on its surface, produced by the winds, precisely like those at the bottom of a brook or lake. We had read that Mussulmans are permitted by the Koran to perform their ablutions in sand when they cannot get water, a necessary indulgence in Arabia, and we now understand the propriety of this provision.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)