Species of Concern
Atlantic Cod
Gadus morhua
Also known as: Cod, Codling, Haberdine, Rock Cod, Kil'din Cod
About This Species
A cold-water, bottom-associated fish of the North Atlantic continental shelf, found over rocky and gravel seabeds where it feeds on smaller fish and invertebrates. It is rarely seen by casual observers, since sightings mostly come through cold-water diving, research surveys, or fisheries rather than from shore, and it tends to aggregate more predictably around spawning grounds and known bank habitats. Cooler months, when it moves to deeper or more southerly waters, are typically when it is most concentrated in surveyed areas.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- This species is listed as Vulnerable following historic population collapses from overfishing, and stocks across the North Atlantic remain under active management, with catch limits and closed areas that differ by country and by stock, including EU quotas, UK and Norwegian fisheries rules, and Canadian conservation measures following past moratoria.
- Anyone encountering it, whether diving, surveying, or fishing recreationally, should follow current local size and bag limits rather than assume a single rule applies everywhere, and should avoid disturbing known spawning aggregations.
- Where current regulations are uncertain, the cautious approach is to treat any catch or encounter as subject to strict local limits and to check with the relevant national fisheries authority before taking any fish.
VUNaNGadiformesGadidae
Seasonal Activity
1,630,587 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
All monthsThis month
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- NaN
- Order
- Gadiformes
- Family
- Gadidae
Photo
Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.