page_title: Atlantic cod
section_title: Fisheries
hierarchical_section_title: Atlantic cod / Fisheries
caption_attribution_description: English: The graph presents cod catches in the Northeast and Northwest Atlantic Ocean in the period 1950-2012. Data provided by FAO.
context_page_description: The Atlantic cod 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, 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.
  The largest individual on record was 1.5 m long and weighed 47 kg, but usually the cod is between 61 cm and 1.2 m long and weighs up to 40 kg. Males and females are similar in size and weight.
  Atlantic cod can live for 25 years, and usually attain sexual maturity between ages two and four, although cod in the northeast Arctic can take as long as eight years to mature fully. Colouring is brown or 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 coastal shoreline down to 305 m along the continental shelf.
context_section_description: Cod populations or stocks can differ significantly both in appearance and biology. For instance, the cod stocks of the Baltic Sea are adapted to low-salinity water. Organisations such as the Northwest Atlantic Fishery Organization (NAFO) and ICES divide the cod into management units or stocks; however, these units are not always biologically distinguishable stocks. Some major stocks/management units on the Canadian/US shelf are the Southern Labrador-Eastern Newfoundland stock (NAFO divisions 2J3KL), the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence stock (NAFO divisions 3Pn4RS), the Northern Scotian Shelf stock (NAFO divisions 4VsW), which all lie in Canadian waters, and the Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine stocks in United States waters. In the European Atlantic, the numerous separate stocks are on the shelves of Iceland, the coast of Norway, the Barents Sea, the Faroe Islands, off western Scotland, the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the Celtic Sea, and the Baltic Sea.
caption: Capture of Northeast and Northwest Atlantic cod 1950–2012, (FAO)
exif: {}