Belongs to Hakes and burbots family, cods order.

Max. size: 120 cm. Max. weight: 30.0 kg. Max. reported age: 20 years. Enviroment: demersal; oceanodromous; marine. Depth range 18 – 1000 m. Climate: temperate. Minimum population doubling time is 4.5 - 14 years. Distribution: Northwest Atlantic: New Jersey to the Strait of Belle Isle and on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Rare at the southern tip of Greenland. Northeast Atlantic: off Iceland, in the northern North Sea, and along the coast of Scandinavia to the Murmansk Coast and at Spitzbergen. Found in small shoals on rough, rock, gravel, or pebble bottoms. Generally keeps far from the shore, near the bottom, mostly between 150 and 450 m in the northeastern Atlantic, and between 18 and 550 m in the northwestern Atlantic. Solitary or in small groups. Feeds on crustaceans and shellfishes, benthic fishes (flatfishes and gurnard) and even on starfishes. Sold fresh, frozen as fillets or dried salted. Eaten steamed, fried, boiled, boiled, microwaved and baked