Flounder of the sea: description, habitats, spawning and ways of catching

In this article we want to talk about flounder. What it is? Flounder - sea flat fish, which has long been popular due to its tasty and very useful white meat.

Flounder and its sub-species

Leading the conversation about this interesting fish, it should be noted that it has become popular with housewives due to its taste qualities. However, not all know exactly: flounder - sea or river fish? Very often, disputes arise on this score.

So, in a single group, under the same name, eleven families are united, including about 570 species. Of the total number of these fish, only three belong to freshwater, and all the rest, respectively, to the marine.

Appearance of fish

Flounder (sea) floats and looks quite normal, but with age, her eyes and mouth shift to one half of the body, which in turn becomes very flat and asymmetric. Naturally, the skeleton and internal organs are changing. Adult individuals lie on the bottom of the lower part of the body and only occasionally rise, starting to move in undulating movements.

Flounder sea is a predatory fish, it feeds on bottom living organisms.

Habitat

Flounder refers to those fish that live on the seabed. Sometimes it can be found near the mouths of rivers. As a rule, it floats at depths of ten to two hundred meters, and in the Black and Mediterranean Sea its habitat expands to four hundred meters. In addition, this fish is also off the coast of Scandinavia, Europe, Norway and North Africa.

For life, different species choose different depths, 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 not visible at all, but only the eyes remain on the surface. And they do it very quickly. With the help of wave-like body movements, they raise the sand, then sink to the bottom, and silt settles on them, covering them from above.

Fish habits

It does not matter which flounder is freshwater or marine, all members of this family are very bad swimmers. Sensing danger, the fish turn over to the rib and swiftly swim away in this position. As soon as the danger has passed, they again sink to the ground and burrow.

Depending on where the flounder of the sea lives, it is able to change its color instantly, acquiring the necessary shade. The color of the fish depends primarily on the coloring of the seabed and its pattern. Changing, the flounder achieves such a coloring to be almost invisible. Such adaptability is called mimicry. But not all representatives of this genus have this property, but only those that see it. Having lost sight, the fish will not be able to change the color of its body.

Flounder - sea fish, the sizes of which range from several grams to three hundred kilograms. The mass and size of it 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 are unknown. But meanwhile, halibuts are the biggest flounder that inhabit the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. A fish weighing 363 kilograms was recorded, and this is the greatest value known to science. Interesting is the fact that this type of flatfish can survive to the age of fifty. In addition, flounder is a valuable marine fish.

It spawns at great depths - from three hundred to seven hundred meters. For this fish choose deep pits, which, as a rule, are located along the coast. Halibut mainly spawns off the coast of Norway, as well as the Faroe Islands, the Danish Strait, off the coast of Iceland, Scotland, Greenland.

Industrial fishing for halibut

Halibut is very much appreciated for its high taste qualities. However, his catch is strictly controlled. And this situation is connected, first of all, with the peculiarities of fish life. The fact is that flounder does not form flocks, they swim individually. In addition, halibuts grow very slowly, and therefore large individuals fall into the network of fishermen extremely rarely.

But the way out of this situation was found, because you can breed fish in artificial conditions. For this, young animals are grown in swimming pools. When he reaches a weight of one hundred grams, he is moved to the sea backwaters, where the halibut grows and develops. A fish is considered a commodity, reaching a mass of two to five kilograms.

Black Sea Kalkan

Flounder, inhabiting the Black Sea, is called the Kalkan and is a very valuable and delicious fish. Moreover, it has commercial importance. For example, in Turkey kilogram of Kalkan costs not less than fifteen dollars. In the middle of the last century, two or three tons of this fish were caught off the coast of the Crimea every year. However, soon its reserves decreased significantly, which was the reason for the prohibition of its catch. At present, there is no such ban, which leads to a decrease in its quantity. Fish are caught using multi-kilometer networks that cover the migration routes of the Kalkan to spawn. This is the traditional way to capture it. Such a phenomenon is considered illegal, and recently such catching has acquired a rather large scale, which can lead to a critical decrease in the number of blackcock in the Black Sea.

Kalkan lives not only in the Black and Azov Seas, but also enters the Mediterranean, as well as in the mouth of the Dnieper and the Dniester. This type of flounder prefers sandy and silty soils, and does not fall below a hundred meters. Kalkan, inhabiting the Sea of Azov, is called Azov. It, in principle, is no different, only slightly inferior to the size of the Black Sea.

Since it is a predatory fish, its diet includes mollusks, crustaceans, small fishes. Young individuals usually prefer crustaceans, and adults, as a rule, eat fish and crabs.

Flounder of Moses

The red measure became the home of ten varieties of flounder. The most famous among them is the flounder of Moses. It is relatively small, about twenty-five centimeters, it lives at a depth of no more than fifteen meters. It feeds on invertebrate animals, moves very little, practically all the time, buried in the sand.

Freshwater flounder

River flounder swims in freshwater reservoirs. It is capable of overcoming hundreds of kilometers by going into the sea. This species also belongs to the same family as halibut, but has a much more modest size and weight (five hundred grams).

A lot of river flounder is found in the Baltic Sea, and therefore it is classified as a mass marine species. It is of commercial importance. Occurs river flounder at a depth of sixteen - eighteen meters, preferring sandy soil.

This species is considered an ordinary inhabitant of the Gulf of Finland, there it absolutely nobody will surprise. It is interesting that the fish prefer the southern part of the bay to the north. This phenomenon is explained quite simply. The southern part is influenced more by the Baltic Sea, here the water is salted.

During the spawning period the fish lays a lot of eggs (up to two million). This process occurs in the spring. And in the Gulf of Finland it lasts from May to June. The female lays eggs directly on the sand or the bottom, and already in the water the eggs begin to develop.

Turbo

Turbo is one of the flounder species. Outwardly it is very similar to a large diamond and has larger dimensions than the river view. Some individuals reach one meter in length, and the bulk usually does not grow more than eighty centimeters. The peculiarity of the turbo is that this fish has a tall body. She is a predator and still has a big mouth.

Her diet includes gerbil, cod, and, oddly enough, river flounder, also in the course are mollusks and sea cockroaches. Hunting turbot as well as other flounders, she slowly moves, looking for a potential victim, then waits for her in cover, while changing the color. It lives at considerable depths (up to 100 meters).

Properties of flounder meat

Flounder represents a huge gastronomic interest in terms of its delicious meat. It has long been liked by many, the reason for this is not only the taste qualities, but also its useful properties. All flounder varieties contain up to twenty percent of proteins and a set of amino acids, yet only three percent of fats. In addition, the fish have a lot of vitamins: 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 increases efficiency and immunity, reduces cholesterol, improves the condition of teeth, hair, skin, improves the thyroid and heart. Due to such properties, flounder is recommended for dietary nutrition of children and weakened people.

Fishing

Flounder is a commercial fish that is caught with the help of bottom trawls. This fishery is developed near the Norwegian shores, in the Barents Sea and the Far East. In the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, catching fish is more likely to be poached. Halibut (a type of flounder) is very common in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, yellow-fringed 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 prevail in the Azov-Black Sea region: marine language, kalkan, glossan, smooth rhombus.

In the sale of fish comes in freshly frozen or chilled. It can be of different sizes depending on age. Optimum for industrial fishing is considered to be an individual aged from three to six years.