Flounder are a rapidly growing fish. Therefore, by the time they leave the shallow water and swim out to deeper areas, they are typically on the order of 6.0 cms. At this point, there has not been shown a large difference in the number of flounder using the sand vs. mud bottom environments. The fish were found to be feeding primarily on Speonids, a plentiful benthic worm in these nearshore habitats. When the quantification of benthic infauna is completed, a profile can be completed on summer flounder use of nearshore sand and mud habitats during the juvenile phase of their existense.
Summer flounder is an economically important fish in Virginia and in the Bay.
And thanks to the work of Dr. William Reay, Giancarlo Cicchetti, Eric Wooden, and Bob Carroll, the forgotten, unglamorous habitats of unvegetated nearshore sand and mud substrate are proving once again that yes, they are valuable to humans and coastal organisms.