The English sole (''Parophrys vetulus'') is a flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae. It is a demersal fish that lives on sandy and muddy bottoms in estuaries and near shore areas, at depths of up to . It reaches up to in length, and can weigh up to . Its native habitat is the

Eastern Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, stretching from the coast of

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

in the south to the Bering Sea in the north. English sole is an important commercial fish, primarily caught off

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

and

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Though biomass is increasing, catches have been declining since the 1960s and are currently almost at an all-time low. The English sole is known in Spanish as ''platija limón'', or lemon sole, a name by which it is also known in English, though the true lemon sole is a separate species, '' Microstomus kitt''.

Etymology

The genus name is derived from the Greek ''para'', meaning "near", ''ophrys'', meaning "eyebrow", and the species name ''vetulus'' is a word meaning "old man".

Description

The English sole is a right-eyed flatfish with a compressed, diamond-shaped body and a small head with a pointed snout and small, asymmetric mouth. The upper surface is covered in rough scales and is usually uniformly brown, but occasionally speckled; the lower surface is smooth, and white to pale yellow in colour. The

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage * Dorsal c ...

and

ventral fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. Structure and function Structure In actinopterygians, the pelvic fin consists of two ...

edges are dark. The lateral line is mostly straight, but curves slightly around the

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

Diet

The English sole's diet consists of

zoobenthos Benthos (), also known as benthon, is the community of organisms that live on, in, or near the bottom of a sea, river, lake, or stream, also known as the benthic zone.marine worm Any worm that lives in a marine environment is considered a marine worm. Marine worms are found in several different phyla, including the Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida (segmented worms), Chaetognatha, Hemichordata, and Phoronida. For a ...

s, molluscs,

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

s and

echinoderm An echinoderm () is any member of the phylum Echinodermata (). The adults are recognisable by their (usually five-point) radial symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, as well as the s ...

s. English sole feed by day, using both sight and smell, and often dig for food.

Commercial fishing

The English sole is an important commercial fish, and has been fished in the Eastern Pacific, almost exclusively by trawler, since 1876. Two fisheries exist: one on the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

, off Washington, Oregon and California, and one in the Bering Sea off

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

. The majority of English sole landed is from the West Coast fishery. Although biomass is increasing, catches have been steadily decreasing since the 1960s — though catches peaked in the southern area in 1929 with landed, and in the north in 1949 at — and have today almost reached a historical low. This decline is estimated to be due to a combination of market factors and management restrictions placed on

fishing trawler A fishing trawler is a commercial fishing vessel designed to operate fishing trawls. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively dragging or pulling a trawl through the water behind one or more trawlers. Trawls are fishing nets th ...

s in order to protect other bottom-dwelling species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2845287 English sole Western North American coastal fauna English sole English sole