Atlantic halibut

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iAtlantic halibut
Conservation status
Endangered (EN)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Order: Pleuronectiformes Family: Pleuronectidae Genus: Hippoglossus Species: H. hippoglossus
Binomial name
Hippoglossus hippoglossus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The Atlantic halibut, Hippoglossus hippoglossus, is a flatfish in the family Pleuronectidae. It is one of the largest of flatfish, growing to 3 m in length and 320 kg in weight. It is native to temperate waters of the northern Atlantic Ocean, where it lives in coastal waters and on the continental shelf down to a depth of 2,000 m.

It was formerly a very important food fish, but its slow rate of population growth means that it is unable to recover quickly from overfishing, the fishery has largly collapsed and now it is endangered throughout its range.

Consequently, fish labelled as "halibut" is usually one of the other large flatfishes, often Pacific halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis. See halibut for other fishes given this name.

[edit] References

• Clover, Charles. 2004. The End of the Line: How overfishing is changing the world and what we eat. Ebury Press, London. ISBN 0-09-189780-7

• "Hippoglossus hippoglossus". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. May 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.