Ammodytes americanus (American sand lance)

The humpback is an energetic hunter, taking krill and small schooling fish such as Atlantic herring, Atlantic salmon, capelin, and American sand lance, as well as Atlantic mackerel, pollock, and haddock in the North Atlantic.

The original dish, McClane wrote, "consisted of juvenile herring, sprat, sand launce, smelt, stickleback and pipefish, all being dusted in flour and instantly deep-fried to a crisp succulence."

Atlantic silversides, which grow to about 3 1/2 inches in length, are common along the East Coast from the south side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Cape May, N.J. Another part of a whitebait meal often netted with silversides is the slender, silvery sand eel or sand launce.