European plaice Fund says, in 2006, "of the eight plaice stocks recognised by ICES, only one is considered to be harvested sustainably while three are overexploited. Data are insufficient to assess the remaining stocks; however, landings for all stocks are at or near historical lows." In 2010, Greenpeace International has added the European plaice to its seafood red list. European plaice The European plaice ("Pleuronectes platessa") is a commercially important flatfish. The geographical range of the European plaice is off all coasts from the Barents Sea to the Mediterranean, also in the Northeast Atlantic and off Greenland. In some locales such as
Flatfish as an early relative of the flatfish and transitional fossil. In a typical modern flatfish, the head is asymmetric, with both eyes on one side of the head. In "Amphistium", the transition from the typical symmetric head of a vertebrate is incomplete, with one eye placed near the top of the head. The researchers concluded, "the change happened gradually, in a way consistent with evolution via natural selection—not suddenly, as researchers once had little choice but to believe." Flatfishes have been cited as dramatic examples of evolutionary adaptation. Richard Dawkins, in "The Blind Watchmaker", explains the flatfishes' evolutionary history thus: