Halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vertebrate > bony fish (Actinopterygii) > Fish |
| Red List Status: | (Not Relevant) [(not listed)(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Hippoglossus hippoglossus |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Linnaeus, 1758) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | (not listed) |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Wild Halibut fished to commercial extinction in England & now rarely encountered. Habitat degradation. Near threatened and decreasing globally. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Large declines due to over-exploitation. Stock status is required in order to direct future management. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | This species would not benefit from untargeted management |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 1. Taxonomy established |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Combination or other (detail in comments) |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Atlantic halibut have become so rare that it is almost impossible to state anything meaningful about a potential population. Atlantic halibut is now so depleted that ICES does not collect data nor issue advice. There are no fisheries data, and only a few fish are caught in surveys. Fished to commercial extinction. Since it is a predominantly a cold-water fish, in the face of global warming there is a concern whether the environment to the south of the Wyville Thomson Ridge will remain suitable. Also, pressures acting outside England - any England-only measures would likely have limited if any appreciable impact. Protection of juveniles could benefit the stocks in the long run. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Increase understanding of current remaining distribution & abundance of halibut, particularly the identification of potential spawning areas for protection as the species is particularly vulnerable to exploitation of spawning aggregations which tend to be at depths of 700-1000m.
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Provide advice to improve fishery management measures particularly lined to the biological characteristics of halibut including the size of maturity to build stock resilience.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Update England Red List status
Action targets: 2. Biological status assessment exists
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.