Sole is a

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

belonging to several families. Generally speaking, they are members of the family

Soleidae The true soles are a family, Soleidae, of flatfishes. It includes saltwater and brackish water species in the East Atlantic, Indian Ocean, West and Central Pacific Ocean, and the mediterranean sea. Freshwater species are found in Africa, souther ...

, but, outside Europe, the name ''sole'' is also applied to various other similar

flatfish A flatfish is a member of the Ray-finned fish, ray-finned demersal fish Order (biology), suborder Pleuronectoidei, also called the Heterosomata. In many species, both eyes lie on one side of the head, one or the other migrating through or around ...

, especially other members of the sole suborder Soleoidei as well as members of the flounder family. In European cookery, there are several species which may be considered ''true soles'', but the common or Dover sole ''

Solea solea The common sole, Dover sole, or black sole (''Solea solea'') is a species of flatfish in the family Soleidae. It is one of the largest fish in the '' Solea'' genus. It lives on the sandy or muddy seabed of the northern Atlantic and the Mediterr ...

'', often simply called ''the sole'', is the most esteemed and most widely available.

Etymology of the word

The word ''sole'' in English, French, and Italian comes from its resemblance to a sandal, Latin . In other languages, it is named for the tongue, e.g. Greek (), German , Dutch or or the smaller and popular (young sole), Hungarian , Spanish , Cantonese (, 'dragon tongue'), Arabic () (for the common sole) meaning 'the tongue of ox' in Qosbawi accent, Turkish . A partial list of common names for species referred to as sole include: *In the ''sole'' suborder Soleoidei: ** The ''

true sole The true soles are a family, Soleidae, of flatfishes. It includes saltwater and brackish water species in the East Atlantic, Indian Ocean, West and Central Pacific Ocean, and the mediterranean sea. Freshwater species are found in Africa, souther ...

s'',

, including the common or Dover sole, ''Solea solea''. These are the only fishes called ''soles'' in Europe. ** The '' American soles'', Achiridae, sometimes classified among the Soleidae. ** The '' tonguefishes'' or ''tongue soles'', Cynoglossidae, whose common names usually include the word 'tongue'. * Several species of righteye flounder in the family

Pleuronectidae Pleuronectidae, also known as righteye flounders, are a family of flounders. They are called "righteye flounders" because most species lie on the sea bottom on their left sides, with both eyes on their right sides. The Paralichthyidae are the o ...

, including the

lemon sole The lemon sole (''Microstomus kitt'') is a flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae. It is native to shallow seas around Northern Europe, where it lives on stony bottoms down to depths of about . It grows up to in length and reaches about in weigh ...

, the Pacific Dover sole, and the petrale sole.

Threats

The true sole, ''Solea solea'', is sufficiently distributed that it is not considered a threatened

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

; however,

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...

in Europe has produced severely diminished populations, with declining catches in many regions. For example, the western

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

and

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

sole fisheries face potential collapse according to data in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Sole, along with the other major bottom-feeding fish in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

such as

cod Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...

monkfish Members of the genus ''Lophius'', also sometimes called monkfish, fishing-frogs, frog-fish, and sea-devils, are various species of lophiid anglerfishes found in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. ''Lophius'' is known as the "monk" or "monkfish" to ...

, and

plaice Plaice is a common name for a group of flatfish that comprises four species: the European, American, Alaskan and scale-eye plaice. Commercially, the most important plaice is the European. The principal commercial flatfish in Europe, it is ...

, is listed by the ICES as "outside safe biological limits." Moreover, they are growing less quickly now and are rarely older than six years, although they can reach forty. World stocks of large predatory fish and large ground fish such as sole and

flounder Flounders are a group of flatfish species. They are demersal fish, found at the bottom of oceans around the world; some species will also enter estuary, estuaries. Taxonomy The name "flounder" is used for several only distantly related speci ...

were estimated in 2003 to be only about 10% of pre-industrial levels. According to the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the ...

in 2006, "of the nine sole stocks, seven are overfished with the status of the remaining two unknown." In 2010,

Greenpeace International Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity" and focuses its ...

has added the

common sole The common sole, Dover sole, or black sole (''Solea solea'') is a species of flatfish in the family Soleidae. It is one of the largest fish in the '' Solea'' genus. It lives on the sandy or muddy seabed of the northern Atlantic and the Mediter ...

to its seafood red list, as they are primarily caught by beam trawlers, which have a very high bycatch rate. The Greenpeace International seafood red list is a list of fish that are commonly sold in

supermarkets A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries.Greenpeace International Seafood Red list
/ref>

Notes

References

* Alan Davidson, ''North Atlantic Seafood'', 1979. . * Alan Davidson, ''Mediterranean Seafood'', 1972. .

External links

* {{commercial fish topics Fish of Europe Commercial fish Fish common names