The halibut is the largest flatfish and one of the largest fish of any type in the world’s oceans. Fully grown halibut prefer water that is at least fifty metres deep and are usually found in waters substantially deeper than this and seek out depths of over one thousand metres to spawn. This means that most anglers catching halibut will be on a boat using pirks, lures and livebait. In Norway and other parts of Scandinavia it is possible to catch sizable halibut from deep-water rock marks. However, in the UK a shore-caught halibut is rare indeed, but a few very small specimens have been caught from the shore. There is no current UK shore caught record for this species. The Atlantic Wolffish is sometimes referred to as ‘scotch halibut’, especially when it is on sale at fishmongers, but this is a completely unrelated species.

Diet and Feeding

Halibut is a demersal fish and therefore live and feed on and near the seabed. Halibut are predators and feed mostly on fish, taking cod, haddock, whiting and all kinds of flatfish, but they will also feed on a range of other sea creatures such as crustaceans, octopus and squid given the chance. They are also thought to sometimes swim into midwater where they will feed on fish and squid species which live there. When fully grown halibut are at the top of their food chain due to their immense size, but smaller young halibut can be preyed on by sharks and other marine mammals such as seals dolphins and whale species.

Halibut – Endangered Species

Due to their firm, dense flesh, and the fact that four large fillets can be gained from each fish, halibut is a very highly regarded food fish. The high reputation of this species makes it popular on the menus of expensive restaurants and it will fetch a high price at fish auctions. Due to this intensive commercial pressure, halibut stocks have collapsed dramatically in recent years. The IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) classes the halibut as Endangered, meaning that the halibut faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future. The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service deems it to be a species of concern, and it is on Greenpeace’s Redlist of fish that are in danger of coming from unsustainable stocks. Halibut are fairly fast growing reaching around twelve inches in length by the end of their second year. However, this species needs to be around four feet in length and ten years old before they can reproduce, meaning that overfished stocks will take a long time to recover. There are currently restrictions on commercial fishing for halibut in United States water and Iceland banned commercial fishing for halibut in 2012 in an attempt to halt the decline of this species and allow stocks to recover. Under the Icelandic legislation commercial vessels are prohibited from actively fishing for halibut and must return any halibut caught as by-catch to the sea. If a commercial vessel does bring halibut back to land (either in an attempt to flout the law or because they were hauled on board dead and could not be returned to the sea) then the halibut is sold but all profit goes to Icelandic ocean research and fish conservation measures – not to the fisherman who caught the fish. If more nations adopt robust conservation measures such as this halibut may be in with a chance of recovering in numbers.

Size of Halibut

Halibut can grow to enormous sizes with the maximum size believed to be around 15ft (4.5 metres) in length and over 700lbs (317kg) in weight. In 2008 a 443lb, 8ft Halibut was caught in Norwegian waters by Soren Beck, and in 2015 Swedish man Erik Axner caught (and released) a halibut estimated at 222lb on a float fished 4lb coalfish bait. Very large halibut have also been caught from the shore. In January 2018 British angler David Wood-Brignall caught a 153lb 8oz halibut when fishing in Bodo, Norway. This broke the previous world record for a shore caught halibut which previously stood at 111lb 15oz. The IGFA (International Game Fish Association) website lists the all-tackle world record as a 418lb 13oz halibut caught at Vannaya Troms, Norway by Thomas Nielsen in 2004. The British boat caught record is a halibut of 234lb exactly caught by C. Booth off the coast of Scrabcaster, Scotland in 1973. The British shore caught record is currently vacant with the qualifying weight set 10lbs. While halibut can reach huge sizes the immense pressures on halibut stocks throughout much of the world mean that the vast majority of current fish will be caught long before they reach anything approaching the maximum size that this species can reach.

Interesting fact: The Norwegian island of Senja is home to the worlds first, and so far only, halibut museum (Kveitmuseet in Norwegian).