2013 Assessment of the Flathead Sole Stock in the Gulf of Alaska

April 23, 2013

Flathead sole (Hippoglossoides elassodon) are distributed from northern California, off Point Reyes, northward along the west coast of North America and throughout the GOA and the BS, the Kuril Islands, and possibly the Okhotsk Sea (Hart 1973). They occur primarily on mixed mud and sand bottoms (Norcross et al. 1997, McConnaughey and Smith 2000) in depths < 300 m (Stark and Clausen 1995). The flathead sole distribution overlaps with the similar-appearing Bering flounder (Hippoglossoides robustus) in the northern half of the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk (Hart 1973), but not in the Gulf of Alaska.