Asole is afish belonging to several families in the suborderPleuronectoidei. Generally speaking, they are members of the familySoleidae, but, outside Europe, the namesole is also applied to various other similarflatfish, especially other members of the sole suborder Soleoidei as well as members of theflounder family. In European cookery, there are several species which may be consideredtrue soles, but the common or Dover soleSolea solea, often simply calledthe sole, is the most esteemed and most widely available.^[1]

The wordsole in English, French, and Italian comes from its resemblance to a sandal, Latinsolea.^[2][3] In other languages, it is named for the tongue, e.g. Greekglóssa (γλώσσα), GermanSeezunge, Dutchzeetong ortong or the smaller and popularsliptong (young sole), Hungariannyelvhal, Spanishlenguado, Cantoneselung lei (龍脷, 'dragon tongue'), Arabiclisan Ath-thawr (‏لسان الثور‎) (for the common sole) meaning 'the tongue of ox' in Qosbawi accent, Turkishdil.

A partial list of common names for species referred to as sole include:

• In thesole suborder Soleoidei:
  • Thetrue soles,Soleidae, including thecommon or Dover sole,Solea solea. These are the only fishes calledsoles in Europe.
  • TheAmerican soles,Achiridae, sometimes classified among the Soleidae.
  • Thetonguefishes ortongue soles,Cynoglossidae, whose common names usually include the word 'tongue'.
• Several species of righteye flounder in the familyPleuronectidae, including thelemon sole, thePacific Dover sole, and thepetrale sole.

The true sole,Solea solea, is sufficiently distributed that it is not considered a threatenedspecies; however,overfishing in Europe has produced severely diminished populations, with declining catches in many regions. For example, the westernEnglish Channel andIrish Sea sole fisheries face potential collapse according to data in the UKBiodiversity Action Plan.

Sole, along with the other major bottom-feeding fish in theNorth Sea such ascod,monkfish, andplaice, is listed by theICES as "outside safe biological limits." Moreover, they are growing less quickly now and are rarely older than six years, although they can reach forty. World stocks of large predatory fish and large ground fish such as sole andflounder were estimated in 2003 to be only about 10% of pre-industrial levels.^[4][5][6] According to theWorld Wildlife Fund in 2006, "of the nine sole stocks, seven are overfished with the status of the remaining two unknown."

In 2010,Greenpeace International has added thecommon sole to its seafood red list, as they are primarily caught by beam trawlers, which have a very high bycatch rate. The Greenpeace International seafood red list is a list of fish that are commonly sold insupermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries.^{[7][failed verification]}

• Alan Davidson,North Atlantic Seafood, 1979.ISBN 0-670-51524-8.
• Alan Davidson,Mediterranean Seafood, 1972.ISBN 1-58008-451-6.

• Video of a fresh water sole onYouTube

• Fish of Europe
• Commercial fish
• Fish common names
• Flatfish

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