FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



267 



Commercial Importance. — This is an excellent 

 pan fish, but there is no special demand for it in 

 New England markets, as distinguished from other 

 flat fishes of about the same size. If the landings 

 reported as "dab" do not include any significant 

 proportion of other flounders, and if most of the 

 dabs that are taken are reported under that name, 

 the yearly catch in the Gulf by United States 

 fishermen ranged between about 2,700,000 pounds 

 and about 4,400,000 pounds for the period 1942 

 to 1947, averaging about 3,600,000 pounds. In 

 1946 Canadian fishermen brought in an additional 

 181,200 pounds from the eastern side of the Gulf 

 and from the Bay of Fundy, plus an indeterminate 

 amount landed in Shelburne County from Cape 

 Sable to the Yarmouth County line. 3 We have 

 no doubt that the catch could be increased greatly 

 in our Gulf if any special demand were to develop 

 for dabs. 



The dab lives too far out from the land, on the 

 whole, and too deep, and it does not bite eagerly 

 enough for it to be of any interest to anglers along 

 our shores. 



Summer flounder Paralichthys dentatus 

 (Linnaeus) 1766 

 Flounder; Fluke; Plaicefish 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2629. 



Description. — The summer flounder is left- 

 handed; that is, it lies on the bottom on its right 



» The landings for that year were 60,100 pounds for Shelburne County as 

 a whole. 



side, with its eyes on its left-hand side, and its 

 abdomen is on its left edge as it rests on the bot- 

 tom, which differentiates it at a glance from the 

 American dab (p. 259). It is large-mouthed, like 

 the sand flounder, which is similarly left-handed 

 (p. 290) ; but its two ventral fins are alike and each 

 of them is separated from the long anal fin by a 

 considerable space, whereas the upper left-hand 

 ventral fin of the sand flounder is continuous with 

 the anal fin. The only Gulf of Maine flatfish with 

 which the summer flounder shares its left-handed- 

 ness, large mouth, and symmetrical ventral fins, 

 is its close relative, the four-spotted flounder (p. 

 270) , but the color pattern of the latter is distinctive 

 (p. 270) and it has fewer fin rays. The summer 

 flounder is one of our narrower flounders. Its 

 dorsal fin (85 to 94 rays) originates opposite the 

 forward margin of the eye; its anal fin has from 

 60 to 73 rays; the margin of its caudal is rounded, 

 and its pectoral fins and ventral fins are smaller 

 than those of the dab, relatively. 



Color. — It has long been known that flatfishes 

 are generally dark on a dark bottom and pale on 

 a pale one. Perhaps the summer flounder is the 

 most variable in color of all our local species and 

 the one which adapts its pattern the most closely 

 to that of the ground on which it lies. It is white 

 below and of some shade of brown, gray, or drab 

 above, like most flatfishes. But it can assume a 

 wide range of tints, from nearly white on white 

 sand through various hues of gray, blue, green, 





Figure 134. — Summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus), Maryland. 



Baldwin. 



From^Jordan and Evermann. Drawing by A. H. 



