Leim & Scott 1966, Courtesy of NRC Research Press

Family: Pleuronectidae
Common Name: Yellowtail flounder, Yellowtail, Rusty dab

Size: to 64.0 cm TL (male/unsexed); max. weight: 1,500.0 g.

Habitat: Demersal; marine; inhabits sandy to muddy bottoms and is most common at depths of 37 to 82 m and at temperatures of 3-5°C.

Range: Western Atlantic: northern shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Labrador side of the Strait of Belle Isle, northern Newfoundland, and the Newfoundland Banks to the lower part of Chesapeake Bay. Most abundant on the western half of Georges Bank, the western side of the Gulf of Maine, on the Nantucket grounds, and off southern New England.

Diet: Polychaete worms, amphipods, shrimps, isopods and other crustaceans and occasionally small fish such as sand lance and capelin.

Reproduction: Spawns from January to August; larvae settle at depths of 10-20 m.

Comments: Commercial and experimental aquaculture species.

References: Bigelow, H.B. and W.C. Schroeder, 1953; Bowering, W.R. and W.B. Brodie, 1991; Cooper, J.A. and F. Chapleau, 1998; Robins, C.R. and G.C. Ray, 1986; Scarratt, D.J., 1996.