21. Jeff and I also discovered that a floating sand eel fly offered in the same manner also worked. 22. I immediately hooked a heavy fish on my sinking sand eel fly; five minutes later, it broke off. 23. By consuming zooplankton they act as a link through to the higher trophic level predators that eat sand eels . 24. The sand eels were so numerous that one rogue wave dumped two dozen of them into Jeff's stripping basket. 25. This was surprising, because they appeared to be feeding mainly on large sand eels , which the dropper fly resembled. 26. The Raitt s sand eel survives better in cooler waters and may move North to avoid warming sea temperatures. 27. But in the water they're deadly, with the tubes dancing in the current like a school of sand eels . 28. Raitt s sand eel fisheries are difficult to manage due to lack of population size data and regular population fluctuations. 29. In the sea many larger fish species prey on the Raitt s sand eel including cod, haddock, whiting, saithe and mackerel. 30. Overfishing of small fish such as sand eels can lead to steep declines in the colonies relying on these prey items.
