subject: What Precisely Is A Halibut? [print this page] The term big fish in a little pond does not apply to the Alaskan halibut. Big fish in a really large pond is a lot more suitable for this beast. If fishing were boxing, this fish would be in the heavyweight division of Alaskas offshore waters league.
As the halibut is a flat fish, its top coloring differs from its bottom color. It is murky brown or grimy brown with asymmetrical spots on its top side. The bottom side is vivid or filthy white. The Alaska halibut sports an elongated body form, upon comparison to the other members of the flounder family, with a third of its length being the same as its width.
Their scales are small, so is the mouth, with powerful teeth on both sides of the jaw. As with most flat fish, both eyes are on the top side. The flesh is white, meaty and tasty. It goes without saying that such succulent meat is well worth the investment of time and work.
A strange thing about the halibut is that despite its existence as a flat fish, its life starts upright, with one eye on each side of the head. During the first six months of life, this fish undergoes a significant change. From an upright position, its form starts to flatten, and its left eye transfers to its other side.
It would be incomplete not to mention the sheer immensity of the Alaskan halibut. As the biggest of the flat fish, those caught which are 9 feet in length and over 150 pounds are not uncommon. The Alaskan state record for catching the halibut even now stands at around 450 pounds.
Halibut are bottom dwellers, meaning they spend their time on the ocean floor scrounging for food, which for the most part includes squid, crabs, fish and clams. They are known to be highly migratory fish, travelling more than 2,000 miles at a time per season. Alaskan halibut grow very slowly and are extremely long-lived by fish standards. Some specimens have been recorded to be as old as 45 years with females living longer than males, and also growing larger, males rarely exceeding 45 lbs.
