Atlantic cod

The Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is a benthopelagic fish of the family Gadidae, widely consumed by humans. It is also commercially known as cod or codling. Dry cod may be prepared as unsalted stockfish or as cured salt cod or clipfish.

In the western Atlantic Ocean, cod has a distribution north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and around both coasts of Greenland and the Labrador Sea; in the eastern Atlantic, it is found from the Bay of Biscay north to the Arctic Ocean, including the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, Sea of the Hebrides, areas around Iceland and the Barents Sea.

It can grow to 2 meters in length and weigh up to 96 kilograms (212 lb). It can live for 25 years and usually attains sexual maturity between ages two and four, but cod in the northeast Arctic can take as long as eight years to fully mature. Colouring is brown to green, with spots on the dorsal side, shading to silver ventrally. A stripe along its lateral line is clearly visible. Its habitat ranges from the shoreline down to the continental shelf.