In our article we want to talk about flounder. What it is? Flounder is a marine flat fish that has long been popular due to its delicious and very he althy white meat.
Flounder and its subspecies
Talking about this interesting fish, it should be noted that it has become popular with housewives due to its taste. However, not everyone knows for sure: is flounder a sea or river fish? Very often there are disputes about this.
So, eleven families, including about 570 species, are combined into a single group under one name. Of the total number of these fish, only three are freshwater, and all the rest, respectively, are marine.
Fish appearance
Flounder (sea) swims and looks quite normal, but with age, her eyes and mouth are shifted to one half of the body, which, in turn, becomes very flat and asymmetrical. Naturally, the skeleton and internal organs change. Adults lie on the bottom with the lower part of the body and only occasionally rise, starting to move in undulating movements.
Sea flounder is a predatory fish, it feeds on bottom livingorganisms.
Habitat
Flounder refers to those fish that live on the seabed. Sometimes it can be found near the mouths of rivers. As a rule, she swims at depths of ten to two hundred meters, and in the Black and Mediterranean Seas, her habitat expands to four hundred meters. In addition, this fish is also found off the coast of Scandinavia, Europe, Norway and North Africa.
Different species choose different depths for life, each of them adapts to certain conditions, preferring a certain soil.
Flounder (sea) burrows into the sand in such an amazing way that it is completely invisible, and only eyes remain on the surface. And they do it very quickly. With the help of wave-like movements of the body, they raise the sand, then sink to the bottom, and silt settles on them, covering them from above.
Fish habits
No matter what flounder - freshwater or s altwater, all members of this family are very poor swimmers. Sensing danger, the fish turn over on its edge and quickly swim away in this position. As soon as the danger has passed, they again descend to the ground and burrow.
Depending on where the sea flounder lives, it is able to change its color with lightning speed, acquiring the desired shade. The color of the fish depends primarily on the color of the seabed and its pattern. Changing, the flounder achieves such a color to be almost invisible. This kind of adaptability is called mimicry. But not all representatives of this genus have suchproperty, but only those that see. Having lost their sight, the fish will no longer be able to change the color of its body as well.
Flounder is a marine fish, the size of which ranges from a few grams to three hundred kilograms. Its mass and size depends primarily on the species. Some individuals reach four meters in length.
Halibut
Many of us have heard of halibut, but everyone knows that it is a flounder. What kind of fish - river or sea, certainly many do not know. Meanwhile, halibuts are the largest flounders that live in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. A fish weighing 363 kilograms was recorded, and this is the largest value known to science. An interesting fact is that this type of flounder is able to live up to the age of fifty. In addition, flounder is a valuable sea fish.
It spawns at great depths - from three hundred to seven hundred meters. To do this, fish choose deep holes, which, as a rule, are located along the coast. Halibut mainly spawns off the coast of Norway, as well as off the Faroe Islands, in the Danish Strait, off the coast of Iceland, Scotland, Greenland.
Commercial halibut fishing
Halibut is highly valued for its high palatability. However, its capture is strictly controlled. And this situation is connected, first of all, with the peculiarities of the life of fish. The fact is that flounders do not form flocks, they swim alone. In addition, halibut grow very slowly, and therefore large individuals rarely fall into the nets of fishermen.
But a way out of this situation was found, becauseyou can breed fish in artificial conditions. To do this, young animals are grown in pools. When it reaches a weight of one hundred grams, it is moved to sea backwaters, where the halibut grows and develops. A fish that has reached a mass of two to five kilograms is considered commercial.
Black Sea Kalkan
Flounder, living in the Black Sea, is called Kalkan and is a very valuable and tasty fish. Moreover, it has commercial value. For example, in Turkey, a kilogram of Kalkan costs at least fifteen dollars. In the middle of the last century, two or three tons of this fish were caught annually off the coast of Crimea. However, soon its stocks decreased significantly, which became the reason for the ban on its capture. Currently, there is no such ban, which leads to a decrease in its number. Fish are caught using many kilometers of nets that close the migration paths of the seahorse for spawning. This is the traditional way of capturing it. Such a phenomenon is considered illegal, and recently such catching has become quite large-scale, which can lead to a critical decrease in the number of sea otters in the Black Sea.
Kalkan lives not only in the Black and Azov Seas, but also enters the Mediterranean, as well as at the mouth of the Dnieper and Dniester. This variety of flounder prefers sandy and muddy soils, and does not fall below a hundred meters. Kalkan, living in the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, is called Azov. It, in principle, is no different, only slightly inferior in size to the Black Sea.
Because it is a predatory fish, its diet includes shellfish,crustaceans, small fish. Juveniles tend to prefer crustaceans, while adults tend to eat fish and crabs.
Flounder of Moses
Red Mere has become home to ten varieties of flounder. The most famous among them is the flounder of Moses. It is relatively small in size, about twenty-five centimeters, lives at a depth of no more than fifteen meters. It feeds on invertebrates, moves very little, lies buried in the sand almost all the time.
Freshwater flounder
River flounder melts in freshwater reservoirs. She is able to overcome hundreds of kilometers, entering the sea. This species also belongs to the same family as halibut, but has a much more modest size and weight (five hundred grams).
There are quite a lot of river flounder in the B altic Sea, and therefore it is classified as a massive marine species. It has commercial value. The river flounder lives at a depth of sixteen - eighteen meters, preferring sandy soil.
This species is considered an ordinary inhabitant of the Gulf of Finland, where you will not surprise anyone with it. At the same time, it is interesting that the fish prefer the southern part of the bay to the northern one. This phenomenon is explained quite simply. The southern part is influenced by the B altic Sea to a greater extent, here the water is s altier.
During the spawning period, the fish lays many eggs (up to two million). This process takes place in the spring. And in the Gulf of Finland it lasts from May to June. Femalelays eggs directly on the sand or the bottom, and already in the water, the eggs begin to develop.
Turbo
Turbo is one of the varieties of flounder. Outwardly, it is very similar to a large rhombus and is larger than the river view. Some individuals reach one meter in length, and the bulk, as a rule, does not grow more than eighty centimeters. The peculiarity of the turbot is that this fish has a high body. She is a predator and has a big mouth.
Its diet includes gerbil, cod, and, oddly enough, river flounder, as well as shellfish and sea cockroaches. Turbot hunts in the same way as other flounders, it moves slowly, looking for a potential prey, then waits for it in a shelter, changing color at the same time. It lives at considerable depths (up to one hundred meters).
Properties of flounder meat
Flounder is of great gastronomic interest in terms of its delicious meat. She has long been loved by many, the reason for this is not only taste, but also its useful properties. All varieties of flounder contain up to twenty percent of proteins and a set of amino acids, and at the same time only three percent of fats. In addition, there are many vitamins in fish: A, PP, E, B and others. Flounder is a source of Omega-3 fatty acids.
It is believed that with the regular use of this type of fish, efficiency and immunity increase, cholesterol levels decrease, the condition of teeth, hair, skin improves, the thyroid gland and heart function improves. Thanks to these properties,flounder is recommended for dietary nutrition of children and debilitated people.
Commercial fishing
Flounder is a commercial fish that is caught using bottom trawls. This fishery is developed off the Norwegian coast, in the Barents Sea and in the Far East. In the Azov and Black Seas, catching fish is more like poaching. Halibut (a kind of flounder) is very common in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, yellow-striped fish in the Sea of Japan, and Atlantic flounder in the Atlantic, off the coast of Europe. In addition, river species can be found in the same regions. The following species predominate in the Azov-Black Sea region: sole, Kalkan, glossan, smooth rhombus.
The fish goes on sale fresh-frozen or chilled. It can be of different sizes depending on age. Individuals from three to six years old are considered optimal for industrial fishing.
