Friday Fellow: Winter Flounder

by Piter Kehoma Boll

Can you spot the two fish in the photo bellow?

Perfect camouflage. Two winter flounders, Pseudopleuronectes americanus. Photo by Brent Wilson.*

Belonging to the species Pseudopleuronectes americanus, commonly known as winter flounder or black back, it is a flatfish native to the North Atlantic coast of Canada and the United States. It may reach up to 70 cm in length and 3,6 kg in weight, although in most areas it is smaller.

As with other flatfish, the winter flounder is asymetrical. It lives on the substrate, lying on one of its sides (in this case, on the left side) and its left eye has migrated to the right side, so that both point upwards.

Condemned to lie on its left side.

Living in very cold waters, the winter flounder suffers the risk of freezing during winter. As a result, its blod has a set of proteins that have the ability to reduce the freezing point of water, allowing it to remain liquid below 0°C.

The winter flounder is an important commercial fish in the USA and regarded as having a delicious meat. It has been overfished in the past decades and some populations have been depleted. Despite a recent large reduction in fishing pressure, many populations are recovering very slowly due to other factors, such as habitat degradation and low genetic variability. Furthermore, there are still some areas where overfishing may still be happening.

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References:

Duman, J. G.; DeVries, A. L. (1976) Isolation, characterization, and physical properties of protein antifreezes from the winter flounder, Pseudopleuronectes americanus. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Comparative Biochemistry, 54(3): 375-380.

Wikipedia. Winter flounder. Available at: < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_flounder >. Access on September 17, 2016.

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