هوشع كندي

Body ovate or rather elongate, compressed. Eyes on the right side, separated by an obtuse, scaled ridge, the upper close to edge of head, but without vertical range. Snout as long as or shorter than eye; anterior margins of eyes about level. Mouth rather large, oblique; maxillary extending to below middle of eye or a little beyond; lower jaw a little projecting; anterior teeth of upper jaw not gratly enlarged, not forming distinct canines. 8 branchiostegal rays; 9 to 12 gillrakers on lower part of anterior arch. Scales ctenoid on ocular side, ctenoid or cycloid on blind side; 85 to 97 in lateral line, 26 to 44 between lateral line and middle of back. Lateral line nearly straight. Dorsal fin with (76) 78-98 (101) soft rays; origin above anterior part of eye. Anal fin with 60-79 rays. Contours of posterior parts of dorsal and anal fins (at least in adults) more or less convex. Pectoral of ocular side with 9 to 12 rays. Caudal with 18 or 19 rays (12 or 13 branched), double-truncate; caudal peduncle as long as deep or a little deeper than long. Colour brownish with or without some darker spots of varying size; fins generally paler.

Off eastern Greenland and from the English Channel to the coast of Murmansk. Elsewhere, off western Greenland and from Newfoundland to Cape Cod (See remarks).

May attain 51-52 cm; usually around 30 cm.

On soft bottoms,most often at depths of 10-400 m, more abundant from 90 to 250 m deepand bottom temperatures of -0.5 to 2.5º C. Lives on soft bottoms.Its food consists of crustaceans of various kinds, worms, molluscs, and brittlestars, and rather few fish. Spawns in spring, between January and June, the eggs and larvae being pelagic until the latter reach a length of 2-3 cm, when they live in mid-water; the Long rough dab becomes sexually mature after 2 or 3 years, but in the far north after 7 to 10 years. It lives for some 17-20 years; but all such old fish are females.

The total catch reported for this species to FAO for 1999 was 21 609 t. The countries with the largest catches were Russian Federation (7 878 t) and Iceland (3 833 t). Marketed fresh and frozen; eaten steaamed, fried, microwaved and baked.