{"id":571,"date":"2025-04-13T22:43:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T20:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/?p=571"},"modified":"2025-05-02T16:27:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T14:27:35","slug":"flatfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/2025\/04\/13\/flatfish\/","title":{"rendered":"Flatfish!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hello again from Alkor! We are on day 9 of our research cruise in the Baltic Sea and today we would like to tell you more about the flatfish world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But let\u2019s start from the beginning. Have you heard about metamorphosis before? It describes the transformation of a body form and structure after hatching, just like the famous caterpillar transforming into an adult butterfly. Metamorphoses are also common in the aquatic world, and in this regard, flatfish hold some truly unique developments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After hatching, flatfish start their lives as pelagic larvae with an eye on each side of the head. But then metamorphosis kicks in. The body starts to flatten, and one eye migrates to the side which then becomes the \u201c<em>eye side<\/em>\u201d of the fish. A growing bone prevents the eye from moving back. With this new body, the flatfish is now well prepared for its life as a benthic fish on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During our cruise we get to see flatfish at every stage: egg and pelagic drifting larvae during our plankton sampling (with the Bongo net) and bottom-settling juveniles and adults during our fisheries surveys (Fig. <em>1 &amp; 2<\/em>). So maybe next time you see (or step on) a flatfish in the Baltic Sea, remember, behind its odd appearance is a truly remarkable life history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Greetings from on board RV ALKOR, Anna and Georgia<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"514\" src=\"http:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2025\/04\/Flafish_species-1024x514.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-577\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2025\/04\/Flafish_species-1024x514.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2025\/04\/Flafish_species-490x246.jpg 490w, https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2025\/04\/Flafish_species-768x386.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2025\/04\/Flafish_species-1536x771.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2025\/04\/Flafish_species-2048x1028.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig. 2. Two flatfish species we sampled on day 8 of the expedition and their most prominent traits. Individual coloration may vary quite a bit, such as dark spots on the blind side of the flounder which are present only in some individuals. Photos: A. Waffender, G. Avgerinou.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello again from Alkor! We are on day 9 of our research cruise in the Baltic Sea and today we would like to tell you more about the flatfish world. But let\u2019s start from the beginning. Have you heard about metamorphosis before? It describes the transformation of a body form and structure after hatching, just [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-at-sea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions\/632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/baltic-rvalkor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}