Halibut is the name of three kinds of large, commercially important flatfishes. The name comes from the word holy and refers to the fact that the fish were once widely eaten on [SO-CALLED]Christian holy days [NOT THAT THESE 'HOLIDAYS' ARE FROM HEAVEN, BUT ARE RENAMED HEATHENISTIC HOLIDAYS [SUCH AS: CHRISTMAS/FESTIVAL OF SATYR OR THE SUN, HALLOWEEN/SAMHAIN AND... WHICH IS A FAR CRY FROM THE JEWISH MOSHIACH THAT PRACTICED AND PROMOTED JUDAISM]. All three species of halibut have flat bodies and spend much of their time lying on the sea bottom. Both of the halibut's eyes are on the right side of their body, which is dark brown. These fishes lie on the left side of their bodies, which are white.

The largest species, the Atlantic halibut, can grow over 9 feet (2.7 meters) long. It mainly lives in the northern Atlantic Ocean. The Pacific halibut inhabits the northern Pacific Ocean and can grow over 7 feet (2 meters) in length. The smaller Greenland halibut grows to just under 4 feet (120 centimeters) long and inhabits the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans.

An important food fish, halibut are caught with hooks tied a short distance apart on long lines. The hooks are baited and then dropped to the ocean bottom. Halibut flesh has a mild, pleasant flavor.

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The Fish...

Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) are large flatfish found on the continental shelf from California to the Bering Sea. Halibut have flat, diamond-shaped bodies, can weigh up to 500-700 pounds, and can grow to nine feet long.

Reproduction...

Halibut migrate long distances from shallow summer feeding grounds to deeper winter spawning grounds. The number of eggs they lay depends on the female's size. A 50-pound female can produce about 500,000 eggs, while a female over 250 pounds can produce four million eggs. The eggs float freely and drift in deep ocean currents. They hatch after 12-15 days, and the larvae drift to shallow waters on the continental shelf. Larvae begin life in an upright position with eyes on both sides of their head. When they are about an inch long, the left eye migrates over the snout to the right side of the head, and the color of the left side fades. When the young fish are about six months old, they settle to the sea floor, where the protective coloring on their “eyed” side effectively camouflages them. Female halibut mature at around 12 years, while males mature at around 8 years. Adult fish tend to remain in the same area year after year, except for their migration to deepwater spawning grounds. The oldest halibut on record was 55 years old.

Prey and feeding...

Larval halibut feed on plankton, while adults are carnivorous. Adult halibut prey on cod, pollock, sablefish, rockfish, turbot, sculpins, other flatfish, sand lance, herring, octopus, crabs, clams, and occasionally smaller halibut. Halibut are sometimes eaten by marine mammals, but are rarely preyed upon by other fish.

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Description—

This is not only the largest of flatfishes, but is one of the best characterized; its most obvious distinctive characters, apart from its size, being the fact that it lies on the left side; that its mouth gapes back as far as the eyes, and is armed with sharp curved teeth; that the rear edge of its tail fin is concave, not rounded; that its two ventral fins are alike; and that its lateral line is arched abreast of the pectoral fin. Furthermore it is a narrower fish, relatively, than most of our flatfishes (only about one-third as broad as it is long) but is very thick through, and its eyes are farther apart than they are in most of the other flounders.

The dorsal (long) fin (98 to 105 rays) commences abreast of the eye and runs back the whole length of the fish, broadening but slightly for the first third of its length and then abruptly, to narrow again toward the caudal peduncle. The anal fin is similar to the dorsal fin in shape but is shorter (73 to 79 rays), originates close behind the pectorals, and is preceded by a sharp spinelike extension of the post-abdominal bone, which projects in young fish but is hidden by the skin in old fish. The two pectoral fins are of different shapes, the one on the upper (eyed) side of the fish being obliquely pointed while the fin on the lower side is rounded. The rather small ventral fins, which are situated in front of the pectorals and are separated from the anal by a considerable space, are alike. Halibut, like other flatfishes are scaly on the whole head and body and they are very slimy with mucus.

Color—

The halibut is chocolate to olive or slaty brown on the eyed (upper) side. Young fish are paler, and are more or less mottled, while large ones are more uniform and darker, sometimes almost black. The blind (lower) side usually is pure white in small fish, but large ones are often more or less blotched or clouded below with gray (known by fishermen as "grays"). Occasionally a halibut is taken the blind side of which is marked with patches of the same color as the eyed side. And we have seen one medium-sized fish in which the rear third of the lower surface was uniform dark brown.

Size—

Only swordfish, tuna, and some of the larger sharks reach a greater size than the halibut, among Gulf of Maine fishes for while reports of specimens as large as 600 to 700 pounds have usually been looked on as exaggerations we are glad to be able to give at least one record of a Gulf of Maine halibut in this weight class. The [page 250] fish in question was taken in June 1917, by Capt. A. S. Ree, about 50 miles eastnortheast of Cape Ann, and since it weighed 615 pounds, eviscerated with the head still attached, when brought in to the Boston fish pier, it must have been as heavy as 700 pounds while alive. Another halibut of 602 pounds is said to have been taken near Isle au Haut in 1902, but we cannot vouch for this one.

Halibut of 500 to 600 pounds are rumored almost every year, but the next largest of which we have definite knowledge was one of about 450 pounds caught on a hand line in the deep water between Browns and Georges Banks in 1908 by W. F. Clapp. Goode likewise had records of a dozen fish of 350 to 400 pounds caught off the New England coast; the heaviest was one of 401 pounds taken near Race Point, Cape Cod, in July 1849. But a 410-pound halibut that was brought in to the Boston fish pier by the Dawn,

3/ 27/1941, was spoken of as the largest that had been landed there in a "score of years," and it seems that halibut heavier than 300 pounds always were rarities anywhere in the North Atlantic.

Full-grown females average about 100 to 150 pounds. Males run smaller, and most of the "large" fish landed in New England ports weigh from 50 to 200 pounds.

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UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

KOSHER AND NON-KOSHER ANIMALS

Halibut

THE FOLLOWING WORDS ARE TAKEN FROM OTHER WEBSITES; THEREFORE, MY INFORMATION IS SOLELY DEPENDENT ON THEM INSTEAD OF HAVING CAUGHT THIS TYPE OF FISH ON MY OWN. BASED ON ALL THE SOURCES THAT I HAVE FOUND THE HALIBUT IS KOSHER - THIS KNOWLEDGE IS INDEPENDENT FROM THE JEWISH COMMUNITY WHO RENDER SOMETHINGS 'KOSHER' EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE UNKOSHER.

For a complete list of 'Kosher' animals please visit our main page on this topic:

Understanding the Difference Between Animals Which Are Kosher vs. Those That Are Not

THANK YOU,

Maregaal Ben Yaakov