page_title: Common ling
section_title: Human uses
hierarchical_section_title: Common ling / Human uses
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: "Långorna sköljas i Mollösunds fiskeläge"
context_page_description: The common ling, also known as the white ling or simply the ling, is a large member of the family Lotidae, a group of cod-like fishes. It resembles the related rocklings, but it is much larger and has a single barbel. This species is unrelated to the pink ling, Genypterus blacodes, from the Southern Hemisphere. The common ling is found in the northern Atlantic, mainly off Europe, and into the Mediterranean Basin. It is an important quarry species for fisheries, especially in the northeastern Atlantic, although some doubts exist as the sustainability of the fisheries. As an edible species, it is eaten fresh, frozen, or dried, but also preserved in lye, while the roe is a delicacy in Spain.
context_section_description: The ling is edible; it is marketed in fresh, salted, or dried forms, and used as fishmeal. The salted roe of the ling is considered a delicacy in Spain and is known as huevas de maruca. Ling can be made into lutefisk. The common ling is targeted by commercial fisheries using trawls, although long lines are used in some mainland European- and Faroese-based fisheries.  This is a deep-water species and its swim bladder is badly damaged by being brought up to the surface from the depths; the advice for sport anglers is, therefore, that boat-caught ling should not be returned to the sea and that they should stop fishing when enough have been caught for the table. The stock is thought to be reasonably good, but the IUCN has stated that  no data are available on the population size or any population trends, that the population in the Mediterranean Sea may be marginal, with the major portion of its global range in the Atlantic. So, no data are available to allow a determination the status of the ling beyond data deficient. Ling is regarded as a "fish to avoid" for consumers by the Marine Conservation Society because it is trawled. In 1999, the total catch of common ling reported to the Food and Agriculture Organization was 53,870 tonnes and the countries with the largest landings were Norway with 19,215 tonnes and the United Kingdom with 11,350 tonnes.
caption: Lings being prepared in Mollösund, Sweden, in 1899
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