Atlantic Cod

The Atlantic cod is a large, cold-water fish native to the North Atlantic Ocean, historically one of the most economically important food fish in the world and the species at the center of centuries of transatlantic fishing culture, from early European voyages to the Grand Banks to the disputes fought over fishing rights in the twentieth century. It typically has a greenish-brown to grey back mottled with darker spots, a pale underside, and a distinctive barbel, a whisker-like sensory organ, hanging from its chin, used to detect prey on the seafloor. An opportunistic predator, it feeds on a wide range of fish, crustaceans, mollusks and worms, and it can live for over twenty years and grow to well over a metre in favorable conditions, though few individuals now reach the largest sizes recorded historically. Cod undertake seasonal migrations between feeding and spawning grounds, and a single large female can release millions of eggs in a spawning season, though survival to adulthood is extremely low. Decades of intensive commercial fishing caused catastrophic stock collapses in several regions, most famously off Newfoundland and Labrador in the early 1990s, and despite subsequent fishing restrictions many Atlantic cod populations remain well below historic levels.