#2152 · 🐟 fish
Sand Smelt
🇳🇱 Grote koornaarvis ·Atherina presbyter
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
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.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 5 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 524 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Georges Cuvier in 1829 (197 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Sand Smelt
- Nederlands
- Grote koornaarvis
- scientific name
- Atherina presbyter
- class
- Actinopterygii
- order
- Atheriniformes
- family
- Atherinidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 5
- sightings in Europe
- 168
- sightings worldwide
- 524
- GBIF records in NL
- 4,576
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1829 by Georges Cuvier
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Atherinidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 118594, Wikidata Q254565, GBIF 2411945, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.