The Crystal sea catches this large great tasting flat fish on the gravely, sandy seabed around the Cornish coast, its not an easy fish to catch and can keep us on our toes when we are trying to figure out where to fish for them as they move around a lot.
Their skin can mimic the type of seabed that they live in and although they are mostly brown in colour, the shade can vary quite a lot depending on the area that we fish for them.
We usually catch them closer to the shore in about 30-50 fathoms (180-300 feet) of water and we see them all year round but the best catches are from late spring to the autumn. We land our catch every 3-5 days depending on the weather so we can keep our catch in tiptop condition.
Storing the catch
When the catch comes aboard the Crystal sea we sort then gut the fish, then we cool the fish a quickly as possible by dipping them in slushed ice sea water to bring the tempreture down as quickly as possible to ensure the fish retains its just from the sea look. We then send the fish down to our re-fridgerated hold where we place each fish in a box on a layer of ice and when each box is full it has a layer of ice placed on top then it is safely secured in the hold. We keep our fish hold at a constant plus 1 degree Celsius to ensure the fish arrives in the freshest condition for auction at the market.