Coal-fish - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

COAL-FISH (Gadus vixens), also called green cod, black pollack, saith and sillock, a fish of the family Gadidae. It has a very wide range, which nearly coincides with that of the cod, although of a somewhat more southern character, as it extends to both east and west coasts of the North Atlantic, and is occasionally found in the Mediterranean. It is especially common in the north, though rarely entering the Baltic; it becomes rare south of the English Channel. Unlike the cod and haddock, the coal-fish is, to a great extent, a surface-swimming fish, congregating together in large schools, and moving from place to place in search of food; large specimens (3 to 32 ft. long), however, prefer deep water, down to 70 fathoms. The flesh is not so highly valued as that of the cod and haddock. The lower jaw projects more or less beyond the upper, the mental barble is small, sometimes rudimentary, the vent is below the posterior half of the first dorsal fin, and there is a dark spot in the axil of the pectoral fin.