European Flounder Platichthys flesus

The European Flounder, one of the flatfish feeding on the ocean floor, is native to northwestern Europe from the Arctic seas of northern Russia and Iceland to the Mediterranean and Black Seas. It is tolerant of low salinity and often enters river estuaries (but not for breeding like salmon).

Young are born with an eye on each side but one eye migrates before adulthood and seafloor living. It usually has its right side up (righteye flounder). Lozenge-shaped and usually a greyish background with patches and orange spots, it can vary its colours to camouflage with its surrounding. The underside is white. It typically grows to 30cm long but can be twice that. (The European Plaice, another flatfish in the same region with orange spots but a different genus, sometimes hybridises with the European Flounder.)