The American plaice or sole, Hippoglossoides platessoides, is a flatfish that belongs, along with other right-eyed flounders, to the Pleuronectidae family. American plaice are an Atlantic species. Their range is from southern Labrador to Rhode Island. They spawn in the Gulf of Maine, with peak activity in April and May. They grow to a maximum length of 70 centimetres (28 in). The species is considered by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization to be overfished, with no signs of recovery. On the other hand, the Canadian government believes the species is abundant, and counts it as the second most caught flatfish, totalling 50% of the flatfish caught by Canadian fishermen. A 1997 study reports that plaice are endangered in Canada due to overfishing.
American plaice may be an intermediate host for the nematode parasite Otostrongylus circumlitis, which is a lungworm of seals, primarily affecting animals less than 1 yr of age.
Famous quotes containing the word american:
“I know that I will always be expected to have extra insight into black texts—especially texts by black women. A working-class Jewish woman from Brooklyn could become an expert on Shakespeare or Baudelaire, my students seemed to believe, if she mastered the language, the texts, and the critical literature. But they would not grant that a middle-class white man could ever be a trusted authority on Toni Morrison.”
—Claire Oberon Garcia, African American scholar and educator. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B2 (July 27, 1994)