Alaska plaice are right-eye flounders which live on the sandy bottoms of the continental shelf, up to 600 metres deep.

Alaska plaice feed mostly on polychaetes, but also eat amphipods and echiurans.

Most commercial fisheries do not target Alaska plaice, and bycatch by commercial trawlers targeting other groundfish is the sole source of significant harvest of this species.

The 2005 total allowable catch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI) was reached before the end of May of that year.

Five to seven small boney cones are found on the head on the eyed side.