Age determination in fish fish. Johannes Reibisch, working for the Commission of Scientific Investigation of German Seas at Kiel, attempted to use Hoffbauer’s techniques to age plaice ("Plueronectes platessa") but found it difficult to accurately discern annuli. He decided to study a different structure and in 1899 he published the first procedures using otoliths as an aging structure. A fellow scientist also with the German Commission at Kiel, Friedriche Heincke, also frustrated with difficult scale annuli, further studied other structures to age fish. He discovered annuli in the vertebrae, opercula, and pectoral girdle and published his findings in Heicke 1905. The works of Hoffbauer,
European flounder European flounder The European flounder ("Platichthys flesus") is a flatfish of European coastal waters from the White Sea in the north to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in the south. It has been introduced into the United States and Canada accidentally through transport in ballast water. It is caught and used for human consumption. The European flounder is oval in shape and is usually right-eyed. It normally grows about 30 cm in length, although lengths of up to 60 cm have been recorded. The upper surface is usually dull brown or olive in colour with reddish spots and brown