Sole

Sole is the common name for flatfish in the suborder Pleuronectoidei, generally members of the family Soleidae, though outside Europe the name is also applied to other similar flatfish, including other members of the sole suborder and members of the flounder family. Several species are called true soles in European cookery, and among them the common or Dover sole, Solea solea, often called simply the sole, is the most esteemed and most widely available; European soles are marine fish found around European coasts, while American soles live in both freshwater and marine habitats in the Americas. The English, French and Italian names come from the fish resembling a sandal, from the Latin solea, while many other languages, including Greek, German, Dutch, Spanish, Hungarian and Turkish, name it for its resemblance to a tongue instead. The species has suffered severe overfishing in European waters, with world stocks estimated at only about ten percent of pre-industrial levels as of 2003 and fish rarely surviving past six years despite a natural lifespan of up to forty, leading Greenpeace to add it to its seafood red list over unsustainable beam-trawling practices.