Creature Feature: Pacific Sand Lance

The Pacific Sand Lance (Ammodytes hexapterus) is a forage fish that is essential to the health of the greater ecosystem. During the day, sand lances feed on zooplankton in large schools and at night they bury themselves in the sand to hide from predators. The sand lance is an important source of food for marine fish, birds, and mammals, including endangered or protected species such as the Chinook salmon.
 
These fish are sensitive to climate change and human interference; they return to the same spawning and burrowing habitats every year so human impacts on the nearshore environment put them in danger. As a result, they are very sensitive to beach pollution, development of structures near the water, and larger impacts of climate change such as rising sea levels. While the sand lance on its own tends to be overlooked by humans, destruction of intertidal sand and gravel areas may be catastrophic to the greater ecosystem as the sand lance is an essential prey species.
 
[ID: three photos of the Pacific sand lance. It is a thin, small silver fish with a pointed snout.
Image 1: A pacific sand lance held in human hands
Image 2: A sand lance half buried in the sand with only it’s head visible.
Image 3: head on view of a sand lance resting on the sand
end ID]
 
Sources: Pacific sand lance– Washington Department of Fosh and Wildlife and Pacific Sand Lance–www.adfg.alaska.gov
Photos: brewbooks and U.S. Geological Survey
on flickr and fisheries.noaa.gov