RV Platessa the central basin. The RV "Platessa" (LT205) was in service with Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom) from April 1946 until June 1967, during which time she participated in more than 473 separate research campaigns. She was primarily confined to the southern North Sea, but with occasional forays into the Irish Sea and English Channel, especially in the 1960s. The RV "Platessa" (LT205) was overwhelmingly dedicated to research on North Sea herring and North Sea Plaice. This work included the tagging of more than 12,000 plaice during the 1950s, 7000 during the 1960s. In addition, large numbers of
Flatfish …bony fish as a rule have a marked tendency to be flattened in a vertical direction…. It was natural, therefore, that when the ancestors of [flatfish] took to the sea bottom, they should have lain on one "side"…. But this raised the problem that one eye was always looking down into the sand and was effectively useless. In evolution this problem was solved by the lower eye ‘moving’ round to the upper side. Flatfish is considered a Whitefish because of the high concentration of oils within its liver. Its lean flesh makes for a unique flavor that differs from species