Raitt's sand eel (Ammodytes marinus), is a small semi-pelagic ray-finned fish found in the North Atlantic Ocean.
[2] The evolutionary history of the Raitt's sand eel is still debated and its exact relationship to the other members of its order Perciformes is unknown.
[8] The Raitt's sand eel is found across the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and is particularly abundant in the North Sea.
The southern boundary of the Raitt's sand eel is predicted to move further North in the future due to climate change.
[11] The Raitt's sand eel survives better in cooler waters and may move North to avoid warming sea temperatures.
Sand eels live amongst sandy sediment of the sea bed where they spend most of the year burrowed avoiding predators.
[14] These requirements mean the Raitt's sand eel is found in distinct patches across the North Atlantic and instead of one continuous population.
Changes to the abundance of species connected to the Raitt's sand eel in the food web has also caused variable population size.
When the sand eels leave their burrows to feed seabirds dive into the water to catch them and then return to their nests.
[20] In the sea many larger fish species prey on the Raitt's sand eel including cod, haddock, whiting, saithe and mackerel.
[23] By consuming zooplankton they act as a link through to the higher trophic level predators that eat sand eels.
[12] They spend most of the winter burrowed in the sediment but then enter the open water between March and June to feed as the abundance of prey increases.
[6] Raitt's sand eels breed in December and January when they briefly leave their winter burrows in the sediment.
Raitt's sand eel alongside capelin and Norway pout are the primary species used for this purpose.
Common guillemot seabirds have repeatedly been found caught and killed in these nets and this has sparked concerns over the negative impacts of the fishery on the environment.
Populations of Atlantic puffin and black-legged kittiwake have declined in response to decreased prey levels of sand eel in the sea.
After the closure the numbers of Raitt's sand eel increased and benefited many top predators including the black-legged kittiwake.
[17] The fishery continues to be closed except for a small area carefully managed to make assessments of the sand eel stock.