Brill is the 100th fish species found in Finland

print this

A new fish species was found in Finnish waters in Tvärminne near the southern city of Hangö in July.
     
The newcomer was found by technician Torsten Sjölund from the Tvärminne Zoological Station. The rare fish was a brill, which resembles the turbot, a large left-eyed flatfish which belongs to the Scophthalmidae family.
      The brill (Scopthalmus rhombus) is the 100th fish species found in Finland, excluding lampreys which belong to the Petromyzontiformes.
      Because the brill is normally found in salty water, it cannot propagate in Finland’s brackish conditions.
     
According to professor Hannu Lehtonen from the University of Helsinki, it is normal that some new fish species occasionally wander into Finnish waters.
     
In addition to the brill, three other new fish species, including the starry sturgeon, the gibel carp or Prussian carp, and the round goby, have all been found in Finland in the course of the last ten years.
      According to the Game and Fisheries Research Institute of Finland, the number of fish species permanently living in Finland is 58.
      In the Baltic Sea the size of the brill normally remains below 35 centimetres, while in the Atlantic Ocean the species can attain a size of 75 centimetres, weighing up to 6 to 7 kilos.
      The brill found in Tvärminne was some 30 centimetres long, and weighed in at 465 grams.
     
The brill is a food fish with a delicate flavour, and abundant amounts of the species are caught in the Atlantic Ocean, while the brill population in the Baltic Sea is weak.
      In Sweden brill have reportedly been caught in the Baltic Sea only in the southern part of the country, while Estonia has recorded no observations of this species. In Latvian waters the brill has been detected only occasionally.
     
The brill is normally found in the coastal waters of the Atlantic from Norway to Morocco as well as around Iceland,in the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea. In the Baltic, brill are regularly found only in the southern and western parts of the enclosed sea.


Links:
  Brill (Wikipedia)
  Tvärminne Zoological Station
  Game and Fisheries Research Institute of Finland

Helsingin Sanomat