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Pollachius virens  (Linnaeus, 1758)

Saithe
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Pollachius virens
Picture by Flescher, D.

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes (gen., sp.) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) > Gadiformes (Cods) > Gadidae (Cods and haddocks)
Etymology: Pollachius: Scottish dialect, podlock, paddle = bumpfish (Ref. 45335).

Environment / Climate / Range Ecology

Marine; demersal; oceanodromous (Ref. 51243); depth range 37 - 364 m (Ref. 5951).   Temperate, preferred 6°C (Ref. 107945); 77°N - 33°N, 76°W - 35°E

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Eastern Atlantic: Barents Sea, Spitsbergen to Bay of Biscay, around Iceland. Western Atlantic: southwest Greenland, Hudson Strait to North Carolina, although rare at the extremes of the range. Migrations for spawning are known to occur. Also long-distance north-south migrations for Europe and the US.

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm 39.1  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 130 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 1371); common length : 60.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 4645); max. published weight: 32.0 kg (Ref. 7251); max. reported age: 25 years (Ref. 1371)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Anal spines: 0. Chin barbel small. Lateral line smooth along its entire length. Body color is brownish-green dorsally, becoming only slightly paler ventrally. The lateral line pale.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

An active, gregarious fish occurring inshore and offshore waters. Usually enters coastal waters in spring and returns to deeper waters in winter (Ref. 9988). Smaller fish in inshore waters feed on small crustaceans (copepods, amphipods, euphausiids) and small fish, while larger fish prey predominantly upon fishes. Spawn in batches (Ref. 51846). Utilized fresh, dried or salted, smoked, canned and frozen; eaten steamed, fried, broiled, boiled, microwaved and baked (Ref. 9988).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Oviparous, sexes are separate (Ref. 205).

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Cohen, D.M., T. Inada, T. Iwamoto and N. Scialabba, 1990. FAO species catalogue. Vol. 10. Gadiform fishes of the world (Order Gadiformes). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of cods, hakes, grenadiers and other gadiform fishes known to date. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(10). Rome: FAO. 442 p. (Ref. 1371)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 115185)

  Not Evaluated 

CITES (Ref. 94142)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless




Human uses

Fisheries: highly commercial; gamefish: yes
FAO(fisheries: production, species profile; publication : search) | FIRMS (Stock assessments) | FisheriesWiki | Sea Around Us

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Summary page | Point data | Common names | Photos

Internet sources

BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes (gen., sp.) | DiscoverLife | DORIS | ECOTOX | Faunafri | Fishes of Iran | Fishtrace | GenBank(genome, nucleotide) | GloBI | GOBASE | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | National databases | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | Public aquariums | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | RFE Identification | Scirus | SeaLifeBase | Tree of Life | Wikipedia(Go, Search) | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates of some properties based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82805):  PD50 = 0.7500   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00676 (0.00590 - 0.00775), b=3.05 (3.01 - 3.09), in cm Total Length, based on LWR estimates for this species (Ref. 93245).
Trophic Level (Ref. 69278):  4.3   ±0.4 se; Based on diet studies.
Resilience (Ref. 69278):  Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (rm=0.55-0.87; K=0.07-0.17; tm=2-10; tmax=25; Fec=220,000).
Prior r = 0.4, 2 SD range = 0.21 - 0.75, log(r) = -0.92, SD log(r) = 0.31, Based on: 2 M, 11 K, 19 tgen, 3 tmax, 4 Fec records
Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  High vulnerability (59 of 100) .
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Low.