Image source: Erich | inaturalist.org
Southern flounder is a species of large-tooth flounder native to the East Coast of the United States and the northern Gulf of Mexico. It is a popular sport fish and is the largest and most commercially valuable flounder in the western North Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. It is a left-eyed flounder. The body color is brown with diffuse, unocellated spots and blotches. This species typically grows to around 12–14 inches (30–36 cm) in length. Southern flounder feed on the bottom of the ocean and in the water column, and are considered to be near-top predators in their benthic environment. Adult fish breed and spend the warmer season in coastal embayments and nearshore shelf waters, where the eggs develop until they are late stage larvae, which are then pushed by currents into the estuaries where the fish settle into the sediment and grow into juveniles. The juveniles stay in the estuaries until they reach sexual maturity and leave to spawn. The southern flounder can survive in low salinity and has even been found in freshwater habitats both as a juvenile and as an adult.
