THE HADDOCK | the Haddock is one of the most common fish species in the Faroe Islands. It has three dorsal fins and two anal fins and has the characteristic black stripes and a black speckle, said to be St. Peter’s thumb print.

THE MEAT | The meat resembles cod meat, but is less juicy and the fillets are smaller.

SIZE | The haddock can usually become 112 cm long.

DEPTH | The haddock is mostly at the bottom of the sea. The normal depth is between 10-300 meters, but it is also caught further down at 450 meters. However it does come up to the surface of the water as well.

COLOUR | The haddock is dark at its back, grey or bluegreen. It is light at the sides, mostly shiny silvery, and white to grey white under its belly. It has a dark spot on its sides. Some haddocks do have grey spots at the upper part of its sides.

CHARACTERISTICS | The dark spot just above and behind the top most piece (part of the body which is near the breast fins and closest to the head). Newly caught it has a sour smell to it.

FOOD | Diet of adults is variable and consists mainly of herring, capelin, haddock, codling and other fish present in numbers, also euphausiids, hyperiids, amphipods, polychaetes, etc.

REPRODUCTION | Spawning over the continental shelf of northern Europe, especially at Lofoten Islands, inside 200 meters line, from February to April.

WHERE TO CATCH IT | North Atlantic and adjacent seas, from Bay of Biscay to Greenland, Spetzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, Baltic and White Sea also in western North Atlantic and both sides of North Pacific. See the map below.