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Arrow-toothed Halibut
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The single species of this genus is one of the most remarkable of the flounders. It approaches in form and general characters most nearly to the cod-like fishes, from ancestors of which we suppose the flounders to have descended.
This fish is found from San Francisco to Bering Sea and is most common northward. It is not rare in deep water off San Francisco, where it is caught in considerable numbers in the sweep-nets or paranzelles, used in Drake Bay. About Unalaska and elsewhere northward it occurs in shallower water. It was dredged in abundance by the Albatross on both sides of the Alaskan Peninsula and in Bristol Bay in 32 to 406 fathoms; Mr. N. B. Scofield found it in abundance in Chignik Bay, and we have taken it at Unga and Karluk.
This species reaches a length of 2 feet and is a good food-fish.
Greenland Halibut
Reinhardtius hippoglossoides (Walbaum)
The Greenland halibut is found in Arctic parts of the Atlantic and south to Finland and the Grand Banks.
It is known also as the Greenland turbot and little halibut, and is abundant on the Coast of Greenland where it is found in very deep water.
It is said to be found chiefly in the ice-fiords and between the great ice-fields in northern Greenland, and there only in the coldest months in the year. It is fished for by the natives through holes cut in the ice. In South Greenland it is caught on the oceanic banks in 60 to 180 fathoms. In Fortune Bay, Newfound-land, it is abundant in 60 to 300 fathoms, where it is caught chiefly in winter. They are taken also on the outer edge of the oceanic banks in 250 to 300 fathoms, a depth greater than that usually frequented by the true halibut, and where the slope is so nearly vertical that it would seem difficult for them to maintain a hold upon the bottom.
This flounder is more symmetrical than any other of the family on our coast, and, moreover, is coloured on both sides, which is unusual in flounders and indicates that this species is in its movements more like ordinary symmetrical fishes and that it can rest with the body in a vertical position.
The flesh of the Greenland halibut is said to be exceedingly palatable, it being firm, white and flaky, and less dry and more delicate than that of the common halibut.
The average weight is 10 to 25 pounds, and the colour is yellowish-brown.
Common Halibut
Hippoglossus hippoglossus (Linnaeus)
The halibut is the only member of the genus, and is found in all northern seas. In the North Atlantic it is found as far south as the Cattegat in Europe, and occasionally the English Channel, while on the American side it has been taken as far south as Montauk Point. Its occurrence south of 40 degree is unusual. Northward its range extends at least as far as Cumberland Gulf, in latitude 64 degree, and on the coast of Greenland to 71 degree north. It is abundant also about Iceland and Spitzbergen, in latitude 80 degree.
The halibut is a fish of the coldest waters. The temperature of the water in which it is taken rarely exceeds 45 degree Fahr., and it is often as cold as 32 degree. In the Atlantic it is closely associated with the cod, although usually in somewhat colder water. In the Pacific the halibut ranges from Bering Straits to San Francisco and the Farallones. According to Dr. Bean its centre of abundance is in the Gulf of Alaska, particularly about Kadiak and the Shumagin Islands. A very large and important halibut bank is found in the mouth of the Straits of Fuca, and others have been developed on the Pacific Coast by the Albatross. The bulk of the halibut now brought to Puget Sound ports comes from off Cape Flattery, and northward into southeast Alaska. Very important gounds are in Dixon Entrance, about Queen Charlotte Island, and along the coast of British Columbia.
The halibut is one of the very largest of fishes and, of all our species, is equalled in size only by the sword-fish, the tuna, mola, and the tarpon. Captain J. W. Collins says he has never seen examples weighing more than 250 pounds. Captain Atwood mentions one which dressed 237 pounds, and 2 others taken near Race Point which weighed 359 and 401 pounds respectively. Dr. Goode had the record of 10 or 12 captured on the New England coast, each weighing 300 to 400 pounds, and Nilsson records one from the coast of Sweden that weighed 720 pounds. A halibut weighing 350 pounds is about 7 or 8 feet long and nearly 4 feet wide. The male halibut is always much smaller than the female, and rarely exceeds 50 pounds in weight.