Image source: hambell | inaturalist.org
The Petrale sole is a demersal fish that lives on sandy bottoms, usually in deep water, down to depths of about 550 metres (1,800 ft). Males can grow to 53 centimetres (21 in) in length, females to 70 centimetres (28 in), and they can weigh up to 3.7 kilograms (8.2 lb). Its native habitat is the Eastern Pacific, stretching from the coast of Baja California in the south to the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea in the north. Petrale sole is a right-eyed flounder with an oval body. Its upper surface is uniformly light to dark brown, and its lower surface is white, sometimes with pink traces. It has a large mouth with two rows of small, arrow-shaped teeth on the upper jaw and one row of teeth on the lower jaw. Juvenile petrale sole feed on cumaceans, carideans and amphipods, whilst adults will eat shrimps, crabs, epibenthos organisms and other fish, such as herring, hake, anchovy, pollock and other flatfish.
