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Flounder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (April 2007) |
Flounder (rarely: flukes) are flatfish that live in ocean waters ie., Northern Atlantic and waters along the east coast of the United States and Canada, and the Pacific Ocean, as well. The name "flounder" refers to several geographically and taxonomically distinct species. In Europe, the name flounder refers to Platichthys flesus, in the Western Atlantic there are the summer flounder Paralichthys dentatus, southern flounder Paralichthys lethostigma, and the winter flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus, among other species. In Japan, the Japanese flounder Paralichthys olivaceus is common.
While flounders have both eyes situated on one side of the head, flukes are not born this way. Their life involves metamorphosis. During metamorphosis, one eye migrates to the other side of the body so that both eyes are situated on the upward-facing side of its body. After metamorphosis, flounder lie on one side on the ocean floor; either the left or right side might face upward depending on the species. Flounder sizes typically vary from five to fifteen inches, though they sometimes grow as large as three feet in length. Their breadth is about one-half of their length. Flounder are ambush predators and their feeding ground is the soft mud of the sea bottom, near bridge piles, docks, and other bottom incumbrances; they are sometimes found on bass grounds as well. Their diet consists mainly of fish spawn, crustaceans, polychaetes and small fish.
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The Annual World Flounder Tramping Championships take place at Palnackie, Scotland, usually in the last week of July or first week in August. Competitors brave the mud flats of the estuary of the Urr Water in sun or rain to try and catch the heaviest fish, or the largest catch, or even the smallest fish for prize money and a trophy. Fish are caught by walking across the mud and trapping them below the competitor's foot. Leisters, which are traditional 3-pronged spears, are no longer permitted to aid capture.
Among other sea creatures, Flounders were found at the bottom of Marianas trench, the deepest location on the earth's crust. Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lt. Don Walsh reached a depth of 10,900 meters (35,810 feet) and were surprised to discover soles or flounder about 30 cm (1 ft) long, as well as shrimp there.
Hough's Neck in Quincy, Massachusetts was once considered the "Flounder capital of the world" due to the abundance of the species there. Pollution levels in Boston Harbor during the 1980s have depleted the population, but there have been signs of a comeback.[citation needed]
World stocks of large predatory fish and large ground fish such as sole and flounder were estimated in 2003 to be only about 10% of pre-industrial levels, largely due to overfishing. Most overfishing is credited to the commercial fisherman.[1][2][3]
The fishes in the following families are called "flounders". All the families belong to the order Pleuronectiformes of flatfishes.
- Achiropsettidae (southern flounders)
- Bothidae (lefteye flounders)
- Paralichthyidae (large-tooth flounders)
- Pleuronectidae (righteye flounders)
- ^ Clover, Charles. 2004. The End of the Line: How overfishing is changing the world and what we eat. Ebury Press, London. ISBN
- ^ Myers, Ransom A. and Worm, Boris. "Rapid worldwide depletion of predatory fish communities." Nature 423, 280-283 (15 May 2003).
- ^ Dalton, Rex. 2006. "Save the big fish: Targeting of larger fish makes populations prone to collapse." Published online [1]