

A halibut is a type of flatfish from the family of the righteye flounders (Pleuronectidae). This name is derived from Dutch heilbot. Halibut live in both the North Pacific and the North Atlantic Oceans, and are highly regarded food fish.


Giant Fish: The halibut is the largest of all flatfish; the Pacific halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis, has been known to attain a weight of over 500 pounds (230 kg) and can be eight feet (2.4 m) or greater in length. A very large halibut is known as a "barn door". Females grow much larger than males with males only rarely reaching 100 pounds. Like the flounders, adult halibut typically have both eyes on the right side of the head. Halibut have speckled or brown top (right) sides and creamy white under (left) sides, and can be distinguished from other flatfish by the tail. Alantic and Pacific halibut have distinctly diffrent bone structures with that of Alantic halibut being eaiser to cut.

Easy to Please: Halibut feed on almost any animal they can fit in their mouths: animals found in their stomachs include sand lance, octopus, crab, salmon, hermit crabs, lamprey, sculpin, cod, pollack and flounder. Halibut can be found at depths as shallow as a few metres to hundreds of metres deep, and although they spend most of their time near the bottom, halibut will move up in the water column to feed. In most ecosystems the halibut is near the top of the marine food chain. In the North Pacific the only common predators on halibut are the sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus), the orca whale (Orcinus orca), and the salmon shark (Lamna ditropis).



 Kingdom: Animalia

 Phylum: Chordata

 Class: Actinopterygii

 Order: Pleuronectiformes

 Family: Pleuronectidae

 Genus: Hippoglossus