Gadidae

Atlantic cod

Gadus morhua

Nine million eggs cast into the cold sea

• Gray
• Pink
• Silver
• Temperate
• Regional distribution
• Marine fish
• Arctic Ocean
• Atlantic Ocean
• Fusiform
• Large
• Temperate fish

Holding legendary historical significance in transoceanic commerce and maritime exploration, the Atlantic cod is a cold-adapted demersal gadid that forms dense, wide-ranging schools across the frigid continental shelves of the North Atlantic Ocean. Its heavy, hydrodynamic body is equipped with three separate dorsal fins, two anal fins, and a prominent sensory chin barbel that brushes bottom sediments to detect hidden invertebrates. The dorsal surface displays mottled greenish-brown, olive, or reddish coloration sprinkled with small dark spots, interrupted along the flanks by a bright, continuous, gently curving white lateral line. Extending from the Barents Sea, Norway, and Iceland south to the North Sea, and from Greenland and Newfoundland to Cape Cod, it thrives over rocky, gravelly, and sandy ocean floors between coastal shallows and six hundred meters depth in waters between zero and ten degrees Celsius. An opportunistic predator, it feeds voraciously on capelin, herring, sandeels, crabs, and molluscs. Historically supporting immense fisheries, maximum recorded total length reaches two hundred centimetres.

Sources: NOAA Fisheries — Atlantic Cod, Gadus morhua