The yellowfin sole (''Limanda aspera'') is a flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae. It is a demersal fish that lives on soft, sandy bottoms at depths of up to , though it is most commonly found at depths of around . Its native habitat is the

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...

waters of the northern

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 contine ...

, from

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

to the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea and

Barkley Sound , image = Fishing boat in the Broken Group Islands.jpg , image_size = 260px , alt = , caption = Barkley Sound , image_bathymetry = , alt_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , locat ...

on the west coast of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Males grow up to in length, though the common length is around . The maximum recorded weight is , and the maximum recorded lifespan is 26 years.

Description

The yellowfin sole has a deep body, with a small mouth, moderately large and closely situated eyes, and a slightly pronounced snout. The upper side of the body is olive to brown in colour, with dark mottling, and dorsal and anal fins are yellowish on both sides of the body, with faint dark bars and a narrow dark line at the base. Scales are rough on both sides of the body.

Taxonomy

The yellowfin sole was originally described as ''Pleuronectes asper'' by

Pallas Pallas may refer to: Astronomy * 2 Pallas asteroid ** Pallas family, a group of asteroids that includes 2 Pallas * Pallas (crater), a crater on Earth's moon Mythology * Pallas (Giant), a son of Uranus and Gaia, killed and flayed by Athena * Pa ...

in 1814, and subsequently as ''Limanda asprella'' by Hubbs in 1915.

Role in ecosystem

The yellowfin sole occupies a moderately high

trophic level The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. A food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. The trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it ...

in the

food chain A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms (such as grass or algae which produce their own food via photosynthesis) and ending at an apex predator species (like grizzly bears or killer whales), de ...

. The diet of the yellowfin sole consists mainly of zoobenthic organisms, including

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made ...

s and

amphipods Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far describ ...

such as

hydroids Hydroids are a life stage for most animals of the class Hydrozoa, small predators related to jellyfish. Some hydroids such as the freshwater '' Hydra'' are solitary, with the polyp attached directly to the substrate. When these produce buds ...

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wo ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

s, and

brittle star Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomot ...

s. Yellowfin sole are known to be

prey fish Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small pelagic fish which are preyed on by larger predators for food. Predators include other larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Typical ocean forage fish feed near the base of the fo ...

for sculpin,

Pacific halibut 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 ...

Pacific cod The Pacific cod (''Gadus macrocephalus)'' is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Gadidae. It is a bottom-dwelling fish found in the northern Pacific Ocean, mainly on the continental shelf and upper slopes, to depths of about . It can gro ...

, and

arrowtooth flounder The arrowtooth flounder (''Atheresthes stomas'') is a fish in the family Pleuronectidae. It can be caught from the Bering Sea to Santa Rosa Island, California. At present, it is the most common fish in the Gulf of Alaska. Data is insufficient ...

Reproduction

Female yellowfin sole reach reproductive maturity when they reach around in length (usually around 10.5 years old), and

spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment, and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** '' Spawn: ...

following migration to shallow waters during spring and summer. Yellowfin sole have high reproductive potential, with females producing 1-3 million eggs.

Commercial fishing

Yellowfin sole is fished commercially, primarily by demersal

trawl Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...

fishing. Having recovered from high fishing rates in the 1960s and 1970s, it is currently not considered to be overfished, and the biomass of yellowfin sole in the Bering Sea is estimated to be high and stable, above its target level. Catch has averaged 94,000 tons from 1998 to 2010, with the 2008 catch of 148,894 tons representing the highest annual catch in 11 years. Landings are limited by crab and halibut bycatch limits. As of 2021 there were two MSC certified commercial fisheries in the northern Pacific.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:sole, yellowfin yellowfin sole Fish of the North Pacific Commercial fish yellowfin sole