Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) is a saltwater, brackish species recorded in the United States. It is found at depths of 10–1280 m.
Scientific name: Gadus macrocephalus · Water: Saltwater, Brackish
Size: up to 119 cm
The Pacific cod is a demersal gadid found mainly along the continental shelf and upper slopes, from 10 to 1,280 m, and it forms schools. It appears to be an indiscriminate predator on whichever food organisms are dominant: young fish probably feed on copepods and similar organisms, while adults take fishes, octopi and large benthic and benthopelagic crustaceans as well as worms. Its parasites include the sealworm in the flesh, a copepod on the gills and a cestode in the intestine. Its range is Arctic and Pacific: the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas eastward across Arctic Canada to western Greenland, south in the Atlantic to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and in the Pacific to Santa Monica in southern California and to the Yellow Sea in the west. Maximum length is about 119 cm total length, and it can live 25 years, maturing at about 67 cm. It is a highly commercial species and a gamefish, marketed fresh and frozen and also dried, salted and smoked, with a low price category. Fishing vulnerability is moderate to high at 50 of 100 and resilience low, and climate vulnerability is moderate to high at 45 of 100.
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