Haddock fish
Haddock fish is an important commercial fish in the North Atlantic; in northern countries, work is underway to introduce it into mariculture in order to grow haddock artificially. It is necessary to find out in more detail what kind of fish haddock is, what haddock looks like, where it lives, and much more.
Content
- Description of haddock fish, what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats
- Haddock what kind of fish
- What does haddock look like?
- Where does haddock live?
- Haddock lifestyle
- What does haddock eat?
- Reproduction and migration of haddock
- Meaning and Use of Haddock
- Growing haddock in mariculture
Description of haddock fish, what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats
Haddock what kind of fish
Haddock fish (Latin name Melanogrammus aeglefinus) is a fish from the cod family (Gadidae). Haddock lives in the northern seas of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Haddock is an important commercial fish.
Haddock reaches a length of 100–110 cm; the typical length of haddock is 50–75 cm. The average weight of haddock is 2–3 kg, but large specimens weighing up to 12–19 kg were also found in haddock catches. The lifespan of haddock is up to 14 years.
What does haddock look like?
What does haddock look like? The body of haddock is relatively high, slightly flattened on the sides. The back is dark gray with a purple or lilac tint, the sides are lighter, silver in color, the belly is milky white or silver. The lateral line is black. Below the lateral line on each side of the body, the haddock has a large black or blackish spot located between the pectoral and first dorsal fin.
How to recognize haddock? In haddock, the first dorsal fin is significantly higher than the second and third. The first anal fin is short, it begins slightly behind the vertical line drawn from the end of the first dorsal fin. The mouth is small, the lower jaw protrudes slightly forward. There is a small, poorly developed rudimentary barbel on the chin.
Where does haddock live?
The habitat of haddock is full-salt seas with a salinity of 32-33 ‰, the habitat of haddock is the northern boreal region of the Atlantic Ocean near the coasts of Northern Europe and North America, around the coast of Iceland and the adjacent region of the Arctic Ocean (Norwegian and Barents Seas).
Haddock is often found in large schools in the southern part of the Barents Sea, in the North Sea near Iceland, and also on the Newfoundland Bank. There is no haddock off the Labrador Peninsula; its population is small near the coast of Greenland.
Haddock also lives in Russian maritime territories - it is common in the southern part of the Barents Sea and is occasionally found in the White Sea. The small number of haddock in the White Sea and its virtual absence in the Baltic Sea is explained by the desalination of the waters of these seas.
Haddock lifestyle
Haddock is a schooling fish and leads a bottom-dwelling lifestyle. Haddock lives at depths of 60-200 m, rarely, but reaches depths of up to 1000 m. Young haddock switches to a bottom lifestyle at one year of age; before that, haddock lives in the water column and, accordingly, feeds at a depth of less than 100 m. Haddock rarely goes beyond limits of the continental shelf. There are cases where haddock was found over deep water in the Norwegian Sea, but the fish was exhausted and close to death.
What does haddock eat?
What does haddock eat? The food spectrum of haddock is benthos - bottom invertebrates such as worms, crustaceans, mollusks and echinoderms, including brittle stars. An important part of the haddock diet is also caviar and fish fry. The feeding regime of haddock differs in the North and Barents Seas. In the North Sea, haddock feeds on herring eggs, and in the Barents Sea, haddock feeds on capelin eggs and fry. The main feeding grounds for haddock in the Barents Sea are located near Cape Kanin Nos, around Kolgueva Island and along the coast of the Kola Peninsula.
Reproduction and migration of haddock
How does salmon spawn? Haddock reaches sexual maturity on average at the age of 3-5 years with a body length of 40 cm and a weight of 1 kg. In the North Sea, haddock matures faster - at the age of 2-3 years, and in the Barents Sea more slowly - only when it reaches the age of 5-7 years (sometimes even 8-10 years). Spawning takes place from April to June. Haddock begins its spawning migration 5-6 months before spawning; usually, sexually mature fish migrate from the Barents Sea to the Norwegian Sea to the Lofoten Islands.
Where do haddock spawn? Haddock spawning sites: near the coast of the Eurasian continent - off the northwestern coast of Norway, off the western and southern coasts of Iceland, off the coast of Ireland and Scotland in the Lofoten shallow waters; near North America - off the coast of the USA near New England, on the coast of Canada off the coast of Nova Scotia.
Female haddocks spawn from 170 thousand to 1.8 million eggs; haddock eggs are pelagic. Caviar, as well as haddock larvae and fry, are carried by sea currents over long distances from spawning sites. Fry and juvenile haddock, unlike adult fish, live in the water column, often hiding from predators under the domes (bells) of large jellyfish.
Haddock makes long-distance migrations, both feeding and spawning. Haddock migrations are especially significant in the Barents Sea. The main migration routes of juvenile haddock are along Nordka along the Irminger Current from the northern coast of Norway to the southern part of the Barents Sea and along the Irminger Current from the North Sea to the northern coast of Iceland.
Meaning and Use of Haddock
Haddock is an important commercial fish in the North and Barents Seas, as well as off the coast of North America. Haddock is caught using trawls and other types of fishing nets. In terms of catch volume, haddock ranks third in the world among cod fish after cod and pollock. The annual global catch of haddock reaches 0.5-0.75 million tons.
The haddock catch fluctuates greatly from year to year, this is due to fluctuations in the haddock population and, accordingly, with the replenishment of haddock stocks at sea. In North America, the commercial haddock catch declined at the end of the 20th century, but in the early years of the 21st century began to approach historical catch levels recorded in the 30s-60s.
In the USSR in the 50s-60s of the 20th century, haddock ranked second among cod fishes in terms of catches after cod itself. Later, due to the increasing volumes of pollock catches in the USSR, it took third place in catch among cod. Currently in Russia in the Barents Sea, haddock ranks 4th in terms of catch among all fish (after cod, cod and capelin) and second among cod. According to 2000 data, the haddock catch was 8,502 tons versus 23,116 tons of cod. Haddock has a particularly high iodine content (318 mcg per 100 g of product).
Growing haddock in mariculture
Recently, more and more effort has been spent on studying the possibility of growing haddock under artificial conditions. Thus, experimental cultivation of haddock was carried out in Canada and Great Britain. In Scotland, the Sea Fish Industry Authority's (Ardtoe) coordinated a haddock project. Two haddock stocks were established - one at Ardtoe, the other at the FRS Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen. Photoperiod was determined for both herds. Successful results were obtained when growing 18 thousand pieces obtained in nurseries. young It was planned to increase the cultivation of haddock in Scotland to 5 thousand tons.