Sand smelt

Sand smelt
The sand smelt (Atherina presbyter) in the Océanopolis Aquarium, Brest, France
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Atheriniformes
Family: Atherinidae
Genus: Atherina
Species: A. presbyter
Binomial name
Atherina presbyter
G. Cuvier, 1829

The sand smelt (Atherina presbyter) is a species of marine fish of the Atherinidae family, common in the north-eastern Atlantic from the Danish straits to the Canary Islands and the western Mediterranean Sea. They live in shoals near the water surface, but go deep in winter.

Sand smelt generally live in semi-isolated populations around river estuaries.[1] A population living around the entrance to Southampton water was found to spawn in the April–June period within inshore algae beds before moving out into the deeper waters of the Solent.[1]

The small size of the sand smelt means it often unable to escape being drawn onto screens used to remove fish and weed from power station cooling water intake and in the case of the Southampton water population it was the species most commonly found on the Fawley Power Station screens.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Tubbs, Colin (1999). The Ecology, Conservation and History of the Solent. Packard Publishing. p. 40. ISBN 1853411167.


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