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NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species |
Common Name: southern flounder
Identification: Hoese and Moore (1977); Manooch (1984); Robins and Ray (1986).
Size: 76 cm.
Native Range:
Marine. Atlantic coastal and estuarine waters of the United States from Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, to Jupiter Inlet, Florida, and from Caloosahatchee estuary, Florida, to northern Mexico. South Florida is not included in the range (Lee et al. 1980 et seq.; Boschung 1992). Murdy et al. (1997) reported it as an occasional visitor to lower Chesapeake Bay, Virginia.
Nonindigenous Occurrences: This species was stocked by the TPWD in the middle and late 1970s in five Texas reservoirs: Alcoa, W.E. Long, Town Lake, Aboerne City Park Lake, and Casa Blanca (Lasswell et al. 1979; Luebke 1978; Howells and Garrett 1992). Collected in Brazoria Reservoir in 1987 (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department 1993).
Means of Introduction: Intentional, authorized stocking for sport fishing.
Status: Extirpated from all reservoirs, with the possible exception of Casa Blanca (Luebke 1978).
Impact of Introduction: Unknown.
Remarks: No reproduction has been documented in Texas freshwaters. Limited benefits to anglers resulted in termination of the experimental stocking (Howells and Garrett 1992). Stomach contents of southern flounder taken from Long Lake, Texas, were mostly small sunfishes (Lasswell et al. 1979).
Boschung, H. T. 1992. Catalogue of freshwater and marine fishes of Alabama. Alabama Museum of Natural History Bulletin 14:1-266.
Howells, R. G., and G. P. Garrett. 1992. Status of some exotic sport fishes in Texas waters. Texas Journal of Science 44(3):317-324.
Lasswell, J. L., G. Garza, and W. H. Bailey. 1977. Status of marine fish introductions into the freshwaters of Texas. Proceedings of the 31st annual conference of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 31(1977):399-403.
Lee, D. S., C. R. Gilbert, C. H. Hocutt, R. E. Jenkins, D. E. McAllister, and J. R. Stauffer, Jr. 1980 et seq. Atlas of North American freshwater fishes. North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, Raleigh, NC. (Cited as a work rather than as individual accounts in the interest of space).
Luebke, R. W. 1978. Evaluation of a multi-predator introduction. Federal Aid Project F-31-R-4.
Robins, C. R., G. C. Ray, and J. Douglass. 1986. A field guide to Atlantic Coast fishes of North America. The Peterson Guide Series, volume 32. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.
Other Resources:
FishBase Fact Sheet
Author: Pam Fuller
Revision Date: 4/20/2006 Citation for this information:
Pam Fuller. 2009. Paralichthys lethostigma. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.
<http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=803> Revision Date: 4/20/2006
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