Flounder Rebounder

Winter flounder (shown above) all but disappeared in the 1980s, and despite fishing regulations, it’s estimated that it could take more than a decade for winter flounder to bounce back.

But University of New Hampshire researchers have discovered that raising flounder in captivity and releasing them into the wild could speed the flounder’s recovery.

Raising juveniles begins in the “honeymoon tank.” Commercial fishermen provide the wild flounder, researchers select mate-ready fish, and finally give them their privacy. When the juveniles reach the size of a potato chip, they’re ready to join their wild brethren in the shallow coastal waters where winter flounder naturally spawn.

But “for stock enhancement to work, the raised fish must be as fit as the wild fish,” said Elizabeth Fairchild, a member of the research team. Much of her research turns on the challenge of making the cultured fish more wild. Her findings, published in the “Journal of Fish Biology,” led her to testing marine halfway houses that give little fish a protected introduction to the wild blue sea.

Fairchild tags the juveniles so she can track their survival over time. She’s also seeing if juveniles can be “trained” to have the same reactions to predators as the wild flounder.

—LiveScience Staff

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Credit: Beth Potier/University of New Hampshire