Southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) is a saltwater, brackish species recorded in the United States. It is mainly found over estuary, at depths of 1–43 m.
Scientific name: Paralichthys lethostigma · Water: Saltwater, Brackish
Size: up to 83 cm
The southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) is a large-tooth flounder native to the East Coast of the United States and the northern Gulf of Mexico, the largest and most commercially valuable flounder of the western North Atlantic and Gulf, and like other Paralichthys it is left-eyed, with the pigmented left side facing up. The body is brown with diffuse, unocellated spots and blotches, and the species typically grows to about 30–36 cm; larvae and postlarvae feed on zooplankton before juveniles shift to small invertebrates and adults take larger invertebrates and fish, making them near-top predators of their benthic environment. Adults breed and spend the warmer season in coastal embayments and nearshore shelf waters, the eggs drift as late-stage larvae into estuaries where the fish settle into the sediment, and most adults leave to spawn offshore during the fall and winter; southern flounder can tolerate low salinity and have even been found in fresh water. In the United States the fishery runs from North Carolina along the northern Gulf coast, and the species is listed as near threatened by the IUCN because of commercial and recreational overfishing and shrimp-trawl mortality. Recreational anglers catch them easily on lures or live bait, fishing from boats and from the shore around jetties, channels and estuary mouths.
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