The Halibut Tribe: Hippoglossinæ.—In the great halibut tribe the mouth is large and the ventral fins symmetrical. The arctic and subarctic species have the eyes and color on the right. Those of the warmer regions (bastard halibut) have the eyes and color on the left. These grow progressively smaller in size to the southward, the mouth being smaller and more feebly armed in southern species.
The largest of the family, and the one commercially of far greatest importance, is the halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus). This species is found on both shores of both oceans, north of about the latitude of Paris, Boston, Cape Mendocino, and Matsushima Bay in Japan. Its preference is for off-shore banks of no great depth, and in very many localities it exists in great abundance, reaching a length of 6 to 8 feet and a weight of 600 pounds. It sometimes ranges well out to sea and enters deeper waters than the cod. The flesh is firm, white, and of good quality, although none of the flatfishes have much flavor, the muscles being mostly destitute of oil. Small halibut, called "chicken halibut," are highly esteemed.
Dr. Goode states that the "history of the halibut fishery has been a peculiar one. At the beginning of the present century these fishes were exceedingly abundant on George's Banks; since 1850 they have partially disappeared from this region, and the fishermen have since been following them to other banks, and since 1874 out into deeper and deeper water, and the fisheries are now carried on almost exclusively in the gullies between the off-shore banks and on the outer edges of the banks, in water 100 to 350 fathoms in depth.
"The halibut with its large mouth is naturally a voracious fish, and probably would disdain few objects in the way of fresh meat it would come across. It is said, however, to feed more especially upon crabs and mollusks in addition to fish. These fish 'they waylay lying upon the bottom, invisible by reason of their flat bodies, colored to correspond to the general color of the sand or mud upon which they rest. When in pursuit of their prey they are active and often come quite to the surface, especially when in summer they follow the capelin to the shoal water near the land. They feed upon skates, cod, haddock, menhaden, mackerel, herring, lobsters, flounders, sculpins, grenadiers, turbot, Norway haddock, bank-clams, and anything else that is eatable and can be found in the same waters.' Frequently halibut may be seen chasing flatfish over the bottom of the water. About Cape Sable their favorite food seems to be haddock and cusk. A very singular mode of attacking a cod has been recorded by Captain Collins, an experienced fisherman and good observer. They often kill their prey by blows of the tail, a fact which is quite novel and interesting. He has described an instance which occurred on a voyage home from Sable Island in 1877: 'The man at the wheel sang out that he saw a halibut flapping its tail about a quarter of a mile off our starboard quarter. I looked through the spy-glass and his statement was soon verified by the second appearance of the tail. We hove out a dory, and two men went with her, taking with them a pair of gaff-hooks. They soon returned, bringing not only the halibut, which was a fine one of about seventy pounds weight, but a small codfish which it had been trying to kill by striking it with its tail. The codfish was quite exhausted by the repeated blows and did not attempt to escape after its enemy had been captured. The halibut was so completely engaged in the pursuit of the codfish that it paid no attention to the dory and was easily captured.'
"The females become heavy with roe near the middle of the year, and about July and August are ready to spawn, although 'some fishermen say that they spawn at Christmas' or 'in the month of January, when they are on the shoals.' The roe of a large halibut which weighed 356 pounds weighed 44 pounds, and indeed the 'ovaries of a large fish are too heavy to be lifted by a man without considerable exertion, being often 2 feet or more in length.' A portion of the roe 'representing a fair average of the eggs, was weighed and found to contain 2185 eggs,' and the entire number would be 2,182,773."
Closely allied to the halibut are numerous smaller forms with more elongate body. The Greenland halibut, Reinhardtius hippoglossoides, and the closely related species in Japan, Reinhardtius matsuuræ, differ from the halibut most obviously in the straight lateral line. The arrow-toothed halibut, Atheresthes stomias, lives in deeper waters in the North Pacific. Its flesh is soft, the mouth very large, armed with arrow-shaped teeth. The head in this species is less distorted than in any of the others, the upper eye being on the edge of the disk in front of the dorsal fin. For this reason it has been supposed to be the most primitive of the living species, but these traits are doubtless elusive and a result of degeneration.
Eopsetta jordani is a smaller halibut-like fish, common on the coast of California, an excellent food-fish, with firm white flesh, sold in San Francisco restaurants under the very erroneous name of "English sole." Large numbers are dried by the Chinese for export to China. A similar species, Hippoglossoides platessoides, known as the "sand-dab," is common on both shores of the North Atlantic, and several related species are found in the North Pacific. Verasper variegatus of Japan is notable for its bright coloration, the lower side being largely orange-red.
In the bastard halibuts, Paralichthys, the eyes and color are on the left side. These much resemble the true halibut, but are smaller and inferior as food, besides differing in details of structure. The Monterey halibut (Paralichthys californicus) is the largest of these, reaching a weight of sixty pounds. This species and one other from California (Xystreurys liolepis), normally left-sided, differ from all the other flounders in having the eyes almost as often on the right side as on the left side, as usual or normal in their type. The summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) replaces the Monterey halibut on the Atlantic Coast, where it is a common food-fish. Farther south it gives way to the Southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) and the Gulf flounder, Paralichthys albigutta. In Japan Paralichthys olivaceus is equally common, and in western Mexico Paralichthys sinaloæ. The four-spotted flounder of New England, Paralichthys oblongus, belongs to this group. Similar species constituting the genus Pseudorhombus abound in India and Japan.
Fig. 437.—Halibut, Hippoglossus hippoglossus Linnæus. Marmot I., Alaska.