The cods include the hake and the haddock, all found in the N Atlantic and Pacific. Today the cod stocks have been greatly depleted off the coast of New England and Newfoundland owing to overfishing, and some restrictions in the catch have had to be imposed. The Atlantic cod has two distinct color phases, gray-green and reddish brown. Young Atlantic cod or haddock prepared in strips for cooking is called scrod.
Cods feed on mollusks, crabs, starfish, worms, squid, and small fish.
Some migrate south in winter to spawn. A large female lays up to five million eggs in midocean, a very small number of which survive. The Pacific cod is found N of Oregon. The tomcod resembles a young Atlantic cod with long, tapering ventral fins. It rarely exceeds 15 in.