Sole is a

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

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, and West and Central Pacific Ocean. Freshwater species are found in Africa, southern Asia, New Guinea, and ...

, 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), order Pleuronectiformes, also called the Heterosomata, sometimes classified as a suborder of Perciformes. In many species, both eyes lie on one side of the ...

, 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 Mediterra ...

'', 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 Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''solea''. In other languages, it is named for the tongue, e.g. el, γλώσσα, german: Seezunge, nl, zeetong or ', hu, nyelvhal, es, lenguado, zh, 龍脷 ("dragon tongue"), ar, لسان الثور lisan Ath-thawr (for the common sole) meaning 'the tongue of ox' in Qosbawi accent. A partial list of common names for species referred to as sole include: *In the ''sole'' suborder Soleoidei: ** The '' true soles'',

, including the common or Dover sole, ''Solea solea''. These are the only fishes called ''soles'' in Europe. ** The '' American soles'',

Achiridae The American soles are a family (Achiridae) of flatfish occurring in both freshwater and marine environments of the Americas. The family includes about 35 species in seven genera. These are closely related to the soles (Soleidae), and have ...

, sometimes classified among the Soleidae. ** The ''

tonguefish Tonguefishes are flatfish in the family Cynoglossidae. They are distinguished by the presence of a long hook on the snout overhanging the mouth, and the absence of pectoral fins. Their eyes are both on the left side of their bodies, which also ...

es'' 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 op ...

, including the lemon sole, the Pacific Dover sole, and the

petrale sole The Petrale sole (''Eopsetta jordani'') is an edible flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae. It is a demersal fish that lives on sandy bottoms, usually in deep water, down to depths of about . Males can grow to in length, females to , and they ca ...

Threats

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

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

; 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 stock), resulting in th ...

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

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

and

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

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, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

such as

cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the 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 ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...

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" ...

, 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 al ...

, 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 estuaries. Taxonomy The name "flounder" is used for several only distantly related species, thou ...

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 Inc. (WWF) is an 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 Wo ...

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 Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

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 Mediterr ...

to its seafood red list. "The Greenpeace International seafood red list is a list of fish that are commonly sold in

supermarkets A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

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