User:Kaitlinmck/sandbox

Cultural uses
The Maori word for yellow-bellied flounder is patiki totara. R. leporina along with four other flounder species were recorded in Lake Ellesmere (Te Waihora), Canterbury in 2005. Yellow-bellied founder was important to the Ngai Tahu and were also significant for commercial fishery use. Ngai Tahu considered Te Waihora as their treasure as it was the greatest fish basket found on the South Island of New Zealand. Commercial fishing for flounders began in the early stages of European settlement and it was the main fishery at a large scale. Flounder caught commercially in Lake Ellesmere provided 5% of New Zealand’s flounder catch in 1979 when the flounder fisheries began to increase