Atlantic Halibut

ocean · flatfish · endangered · deep sea

Giant flatfish. Atlantic halibut are among the biggest bony fish in the whole world, with their flat bodies perfectly shaped for living on the ocean floor.

Strong swimmers. Unlike most flatfish that creep along the bottom, halibut are powerful swimmers able to travel long distances across the ocean.

Deep water dwellers. These fish live between 50 and 2,000 meters deep on sandy, gravelly, or clay bottoms where they hunt for food.

Threatened species. Atlantic halibut are in trouble because they grow very slowly and humans fish them faster than their populations can recover.

Size follows cycles. Interestingly, how big a halibut gets depends more on how many other halibut are around than on how old it actually is.