Starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus) have a very broad geographic distribution around the rim of the north Pacific Ocean. In the eastern Pacific it has been recorded from Los Angeles to the Aleutian Islands, although it is rare south of Point Conception. In the western Pacific it ranges south, from the Bering Sea past the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sea of Okhotsk, and into the Sea of Japan off Korea. Off the west coast of the United States it is found commonly in nearshore waters, especially in the vicinity of estuaries. It has a quite shallow bathymetric distribution, with most individuals occurring in waters less than 80 m, although specimens have been collected off the continental shelf in excess of 350 m (Ralston 2005).