Common Dab

Fascinating facts about the Common Dab

• At depths of up to 100 m (330 ft) the common dab lives on sandy bottoms.
• A 40 cm (16 in) specimen can weigh up to 1 kg (2.2 lb), while most individuals are no longer than 20 cm (7.9 in).
• First recorded in the late 16th century, the word “dab” likely stems from Middle English “dabbe,” and Carl Linnaeus gave it the scientific name Pleuronectes limanda in 1758. The long naming history reminds us how human language tracks our expanding knowledge of even humble sea creatures.
• Found from the Bay of Biscay up to Iceland and the White Sea, the dab’s range includes the North Sea and western Baltic.
• Once dismissed as by-catch, the dab is now targeted by an increasing number of commercial vessels in the North Sea, and celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver have promoted eating dab.

At a glance

About the Common Dab

The common dab (Limanda limanda) glides across the soft, sandy floors of the North Sea and the western Baltic, its right-handed eyes peering out from a pale brown canvas speckled with darker blotches. Its translucent body, edged with rough-backed scales and a semi-circular lateral line above a sometimes orange pectoral fin, betrays a close kinship to plaice and flounder yet lacks the plaice’s orange spots and the flounder’s heavier build. Growing typically between 25 and 40 cm, with a maximum length of 40 cm and weight up to 1 kg, this demersal flatfish lies in wait just beneath the surface, its dorsal and anal fins forming a gentle curve that mirrors the contour of the seabed. Its diet is a bustling banquet of zoobenthic life, marine worms, molluscs, sand eels, amphipods, crustaceans, echinoderms and small fish.

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