482 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



Size. — Next to the halibut this is the largest North Atlantic flatfish, growing 

  length of about 40 inches and a weight of 20 to 25 pounds, but fish caught about 

 the Grand Banks average only about 5 to 10 pounds. 



General range. — Arctic-Atlantic. It is caught about Newfoundland, on the 

 Grand Banks, along the Scotian Banks, and as far south on the American coast as 

 the Eastern Channel off Cape Sable. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — We mention this Arctic fish here on the 

 strength of Goode and Bean's (1879g, p. 40) statement that "fishermen take them 

 frequently in the gully between La Have and Georges Banks at depths greater than 

 200 fathoms;" and as no one has reported a Greenland halibut from the Gulf of 

 Maine since that time, nor from the continental slope anywhere west of the Eastern 

 Channel, the latter is evidently its southern limit. 



, . ;.-■ 



Fig. 242. — Greenland halibut (Reivhardtius hippoglossoides) 



167. American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides Fabricius) 54 

 Canadl^n plaice; Sand dab; Rough dab; Plaice; Turbot; Flounder; Sole 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2614. 



Description. — The most obvious diagnostic characters of the American plaice 

 are that it is right-handed and large-mouthed like the halibut but with rounded 

 instead of forked tail, and with a straight instead of an arched lateral line, being 

 the only Gulf of Maine flounder in which these characters are combined. Our only 

 other large-mouthed flatfishes with rounded tails (the sand, summer, and four- 

 spotted flounders, pp. 516, 491, and 494) are left-handed. The wide-gaping jaws 

 mark the plaice at first glance from the various small-mouthed flounders. 



The plaice is a comparatively broad (really deep) flounder (about two and one- 

 half times as long as broad), more rounded in outline than the halibut, with 

 pointed nose, mouth gaping back to abreast the middle of the eye, and one 

 irregular row of sharp conical teeth in each jaw. The free edges of the scales of the en- 

 tire upper body and head are serrated with sharp teeth, which give the fish a character- 

 istic rough feeling when handled, but those of the lower (blind) side are smooth-edged 

 except on the rear part of the body and along the bases of the fins. The dorsal 



w Various other common names are applied to this fish in different seas. It is usually termed "long rough dab" in England 

 and is so listed in British fishery statistics. It is not the "plaice" of Europe. 



