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Shotted halibut fish identification, Habitats, Fishing methods, fish characteristics
The Shotted halibut, Eopsetta grigorjewi, is a flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae, right eyed flounders. It is a demersal fish that lives on sandy mud bottoms and can reach 24 in (60 cm) in length. Species are native to the Western Pacific, extending from the Pacific coast of Japan in the north, down the coast of China and the East China Sea, as far as Taiwan in the south. Good meat to eat steamed or braised.
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The Shotted halibut, Eopsetta grigorjewi, also known as Shotted halibut, Eopsetta grigorjewi, Shothole flounder, Shothole halibut, Roundnose flounder, shottedhalibut, mushigarei, mushi-garei, mushigarei, Verasper otakii(Japanese), Камбала Григорьева (Russian), marine subtropical species widely distributed in Northwest Pacific: Pacific coast of Japan, Sea of Japan, Yellow Seas, coast of Hokkaido, Gulf of Po-Hai, East China Sea to Taiwan, south-west of Sakhalin, and the southern Kurile Islands.
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Description:
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The body is relatively wide, dextral, dorsal outline a little more convex than ventral. Head is 1/4 in length. Mouth is wide large, oblique; outline of gape strongly curved; length of right upper jaw never shorter than 1/3 head length, reaching a vertical from posterior edge of pupil; symphyseal knob small. Teeth of both jaws are small, similar, growing larger anteriorly; those of the upper jaw in two series, the inner ones small, the outer larger and canine-like sharp; teeth of lower jaw in a single series.
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Dorsal fin with 87-93 soft rays begins on the front over anterior edge of pupil, each ray with a small, projecting filament. Anal fin base with a naked spine at its insertion has 67-74 soft anal-fin rays with filaments in the bottom back edge of pectoral fin base. Dorsal and anal rays are both ending opposite each other. Pectoral fins are on both sides; pectoral of blind side shorter, its length contained 1/3 in head, its middle ray’s longest, upper rays of eyed pectoral longest. Edge of caudal fin is bluntly angular.
Gill rakers rather slender, length of longest contained 1/4 times in maxillary. Anterior nostril is with a dermal flap which extends to posterior edge of second nostril. Anterior margins of eyes opposite each other. Interorbital space narrow, convex. Lateral line developed on both side, arched above pectoral, the width of arch equal to length of pectoral. Right side of body and head, except snout, lower jaw, and a small space near vent, covered with small, strongly ctenoid scales; left side of body with smooth scales; on both sides of body are small, elongate scales wedged in between the larger ones; rays of dorsal, anal, and caudal fins with small scales; posterior edge of maxillary with a few small scales. Scales small, eye side of the comb scales were weak, the blind side of the scales are round, back and anal fin rays were scales; both sides of the lateral line are developed, the number of 88-98 scales.
Key characters
Both eyes are normally on the right side. Eyed side has a lot of dark large spots, 3 of which are larger in rings with a light middle. Lateral line above the base of the pectoral fin forms a high arc. Preoperculum with a free margin. Fins are without spines. Dorsal fin extends on head. Swim-bladder is absent in adults.
87-93 Dorsal fin rays
67-74 Anal fin rays
11 Pectoral fin rays
40-43 Vertebrae
6+17 Gill rakers
92 scales in lateral line on eyed side, 98 on blind side
Max length: 60.0 cm
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Body pale brown, brownish, scattered in many different sizes of the dark ring pattern; head with an indistinct dark spot just below angle of preopercle; two similar spots on a line behind upper eye; body with six well-defined dark spots with indistinct light markings, arranged 3 above and 3 below lateral line; of the anterior pair, the upper is a little in advance of the lower one, others opposite each other; two indefinite spots above, the lateral line, just posterior to angle of opercle; fins without spots; snout on blind side with a transverse black blotch, which is continued on the lower jaw. The pigmented side is capable of remarable color changes in order to match the bottom. Blind side is white.
Habitats:
The Shotted halibut main habitat is in the warm and cold and deep waters on the shelf and continental slope with sand and mud bottom, along the coastal depth range 200 ft – 4,347 ft (60 – 1325 m). Also found in the sublittoral zone, above 200 m on sandy mud bottoms. Juveniles prefer coastal waters, bays and coves.
They feed on benthic animals.
Spawning:
Spawning takes place in the southern Sea of Japan from January to March and in Hokkaido from May to June. They are pelagic spawners. Eggs are pelagic, without oil globule in yolk.
Fishing Methods:
They usually catch with a bottom trawl or longline catch fishing method. Good meat to eat steamed or braised. In catches in the southern Sea of Japan, this fish is an important fishery species.
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