Gadus [Artedi, 1738] Linnaeus, 1758
Upper jaw projecting beyond lower one, reaching beyond the level of the front of eye. A barbel on chin as long as eye diameter. Coronal fossa on frontals closed in front of commissure between supra-orbital canals. Sensory canals with large pores on head. First anal fin short, its base less than one-half of preanal distance and its origin below the origin of second dorsal fin or just behind it. Caudal fin truncate. Lateral line not continuous behind middle of third dorsal fin. Lateral line light in colour.
Habitat: continental shelf from shoreline to 600 m depth or even deeper, usually 150-200 m, at bottom or in intermediate water layer between 30-80 m off bottom in Atlantic and less deep in Baltic and White Sea. Behaviour: gregarious, forming shoals and undertaking spawning and feeding migrations. Food: diet of adults is variable and consists mainly of herring, capelin, haddock, codling and other fish present in numbers, also euphausiids, hyperiids, amphipods, polychaetes, etc. Reproduction: spawning over the continental shelf of northern Europe, especially at Lofoten Islands, inside 200 m line, from February to April and from March to May in coastal region of White Sea.
Distribution: North Atlantic and adjacent seas, from Bay of Biscay to Greenland, Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya (G. m. morhua L.), Baltic (G. m. callarias L.) and White Sea (G. m. marisalbi Derjugin) also in western North Atlantic and both sides of North Pacific (G. m. macrocephalus Tilesius).
Species 1.
Species of this genus in the program:
Gadus morhua