Habitat: Demersal Main role: Predator Trophic level: 4
Diet: The main preys are polychaetes and meiofauna, but large specimens also eat small fish such as gobies and dragonets.
Threats: Highly commercial. Sole is mainly caught in the southern North Sea and off the Danish coast. In the English fishery, the high value of sole makes it one of the most important species targeted by inshore vessels using trawls and fixed nets. Sole is also taken as a target and by-catch species by offshore beam- and otter-trawlers and gillnetters.===MSP Challenge===
The flatfish group includes the following species: witch, long-rough dab, flounder, lemon sole, turbot, brill, megrim, halibut, sole, plaice and dab.
Flatfish is a month-by-month, computer generated data layer following calculations made by the ecosystem simulation (EwE).
Different pressures generate by human activities (noise, bottom disturbance, surface disturbance, artificial substrate) have different, complex effects on marine species in terms of movement, survival and procreation.
Flatfish are caught by all fishing fleets, but mostly by industrial and pelagic trawl.
In different languages
The common sole is a flatfish living on the sandy or muddy seabed, often burying itself in the substrate. It grows to a maximum length of about 70 cm.
Habitat: Demersal Main role: Prey Trophic level: 3,2
Diet: Plaice is predominantly benthivorous, although larger specimens also feed on small demersal fish.
Threats: Highly commercial. The North Sea has the largest fishery for plaice in all of Europe. They are traditionally caught in a directed beam-trawl fishery and in a mixed fishery with sole. Plaice are also a by-catch in inshore and offshore otter-trawl fisheries.
In different languages:
The European plaice is a common flatfish occurring on sand and muddy sea beds, typically at depths between 10 to 50m, but can be found up to 200m. They are resilient to changes in salinity.
Habitat: Demersal Main role: Prey Trophic level: 4
Diet: Dab is a dominantly benthivorous fish species, although larger specimens occasionally feed on small demersal fish.
Threats: Dab is commercially fished with trawl nets.
Dab is a flatfish with an important role in the food web as both consumer and prey, mainly because of its great abundance. Dab live on sandy bottoms up to 100m in depth.
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