The witch is a right-eyed flatfish with a small mouth[3] which reaches the forward edge of the lower eye.

[3] It has a small head which takes up a fifth of the total length with large, open blister-like mucous pits on its blind side[3] Its body is strongly, dorsally compressed and oval in shape.

[6] Almost all of the head and body, apart from the tip of the snout and the lower jaw is covered in smooth scales which make the fish slippery when held.

In the northeastern Atlantic Ocean it is found from the northernmost part of the Bay of Biscay to the Kattegat and into the westernmost part of the Baltic Sea, northwards along the entire coast of Norway and east in to the Murmansk region of Russia and west to the southern and western coasts of Iceland.

The juvenile fish cease to be nektonic when they grow to lengths of 5–6 cm (2.0–2.4 in) and adopt a benthic habit at shallower depths than the adults.

[4] and can take place in temperatures ranging from near freezing to 8.8-10 °C, experiments have demonstrated that the eggs continue to incubate normally in water which is as cold as 7.2 °C (45.0 °F).

As the larvae grow they develop five transverse bands on their body, the reduced yolk and the fin folds.

[10] The witch is commercially important as a bycatch and there are fisheries directed at this species, except that it is occasionally targeted in the Skagerrak.

[4] The name Torbay sole appears to be a mainly culinary term,[12] following the habit of renaming certain fish to broaden their appeal.