#2125 · 🐟 fish
Sand Dab
🇳🇱 Schar ·Limanda limanda
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The common dab ( Limanda limanda ) is an edible flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae. It is a demersal fish native to shallow seas around Northern Europe, in particular the North Sea, where it lives on sandy bottoms down to depths of about 100 metres (330 ft). 2 lb), though most specimens grow no longer than 30 centimetres (12 in).
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 12 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 387 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Sand Dab
- Nederlands
- Schar
- scientific name
- Limanda limanda
- class
- Actinopterygii
- order
- Carangiformes
- family
- Pleuronectidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 12
- sightings in Europe
- 282
- sightings worldwide
- 387
- GBIF records in NL
- 154,288
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Pleuronectidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 61387, Wikidata Q1135526, GBIF 5213960, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.