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SpeciesScientists Discover Mysterious New Fish in the Red Sea – and Have Never Seen It Again OceanEye to eye with Britain's hidden sharks at SharkAdemy - Oceanographic RiversIn October, biologists surveying a New York harbor for invasive fish pulled up a bright yellow one. It wasn't an invasive species at all OceanShedd Aquarium Sends Shark Eggs to Bolster Wild Populations SpeciesA rare fish has been found in Lake Ontario, North America, whose entire body is golden. It is a nati..OceanThe Great Sea Reef Is Fiji’s Wildest Dive, and a New Frontier for Conservation OceanEckerd College professor contributes to designating Biscayne Bay an Important Shark and Ray Area SpeciesRio Verde Grande Survey Identifies Fifty-Three Fish Species Facing Flow Reductions FisheriesAdams River Salmon Run in Thompson-Nicola IndiaHilsa production dropped 26% in five years, fisheries minister tells parliament SpeciesScientists Discover Mysterious New Fish in the Red Sea – and Have Never Seen It Again OceanEye to eye with Britain's hidden sharks at SharkAdemy - Oceanographic RiversIn October, biologists surveying a New York harbor for invasive fish pulled up a bright yellow one. It wasn't an invasive species at all OceanShedd Aquarium Sends Shark Eggs to Bolster Wild Populations SpeciesA rare fish has been found in Lake Ontario, North America, whose entire body is golden. It is a nati..OceanThe Great Sea Reef Is Fiji’s Wildest Dive, and a New Frontier for Conservation OceanEckerd College professor contributes to designating Biscayne Bay an Important Shark and Ray Area SpeciesRio Verde Grande Survey Identifies Fifty-Three Fish Species Facing Flow Reductions FisheriesAdams River Salmon Run in Thompson-Nicola IndiaHilsa production dropped 26% in five years, fisheries minister tells parliament

EveryFish

Cods and hakes

Atlantic cod, haddock, pollock and the hakes. 0 fish on EveryFish so far.

Cods and hakes belong to the order Gadiformes, fish of cool and cold seas with soft fins, often three dorsal fins and a single barbel on the chin. The group includes Atlantic cod, haddock, pollock, saithe, whiting, the hakes and the grenadiers of the deep sea. Their mild white flesh has made them some of the most traded fish in history, salted, dried and frozen.

The fish that built nations

Dried and salted cod fed sailors, armies and fasting Catholics across Europe for centuries. Norway's stockfish from Lofoten, Portugal's bacalhau and Newfoundland's salt cod were traded across the Atlantic. Britain and Iceland fought the Cod Wars over fishing limits between 1958 and 1976. Today the Alaska pollock, made into fish fingers, fillets and surimi, is the largest white-fish fishery in the world.

Collapse and recovery

The northern cod of the Grand Banks collapsed after decades of heavy trawling, and Canada closed the fishery in 1992, with tens of thousands of jobs lost. The cod of the Barents Sea, managed by Norway and Russia, recovered under tight quotas and is now the largest cod stock. The Bombay duck of India, despite the name and soft white flesh, is not a cod at all but a lizardfish.

Famous cod fish

BurbotThe only freshwater member of the group

Still to be written: Atlantic cod, Haddock, Alaska pollock, Pollachius virens, Merluccius merluccius, Boreogadus.

Further reading

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Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Burbot: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

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