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Merluccius bilinearis

Silver Hake
NS G5
Collection Details

Specimens

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Taxonomic Hierarchy

Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes) Gadiformes (Cod, Hakes and others) Merlucciidae (Merlucciid Hakes) Merluccius Merluccius bilinearis (Silver Hake)

Description

This species account was compiled from Composite (multiple sources) (Carpenter, K.E. (ed.) 2002. The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. FAO, Rome.) and processed using AI-assisted text extraction. It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting. When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page. Learn more about our species accounts.

Synonymy

None / Merluccius merluccius (Linnaeus, 1758), M. albidus (Mitchill, 1818)

Characters

Head length 24 to 27% of st andard length; gill rakers long and pointed, 16 to 20 total on first arch. Second dorsal fin with 37 to 42 soft rays; anal fin with 37 to 42 soft rays. Scale rows 101 to 110 on lateral line. Total number of verte- first gill arch brae 26 to 29. Colour: greyish dors ally, remaining areas silvery white.
Body shape: elongated. Head large, about 30% of SL . Pectoral fins long, reaching origin of anal fin. Overall color is silvery, somewhat brownish on back, whitish on belly. Striking features: striking shape of body.

Distribution

Atlantic coast of North America from Florida to Newfoundl and.

Habitat Associations

Inhab its continental shelf depths from about 55 to 300 m, but also found in upper-slope waters to more than 900 m; occasion ally strays into sh allow coastal waters; season ally migrates to sh allower waters during warmer months, to deeper offshore waters in winter. Young of 1 to 3 years feed pri- marily on invertebrates (mostly crustaceans, es- peci ally euphausiids and p andalids); older fish feed mostly on fish and cephalopods; cannibal- ism signifi cant and may regulate population of species. Spawning occurs in summer and early autumn and is highly dependent on water temper- ature.

Biology

Maximum length about 76 cm.
Abundant on sandy grounds and strays into shallower waters. A voracious predator with cannibalistic habits. Individuals over 40 cm TL prey on fishes such as gadoids and herring, while smaller ones feed on crustaceans, i.e. euphausiids and pandalids; food also includes gaspereau, myctophids, smelt, silversides, mackerel, sand lance, butterfish, snakeblennies, longhorn sculpins and squids (Ref. 5951). The smallest specimen feeds mostly on crustaceans (Ref. 58452). Exhibits seasonal onshore-offshore migration (Ref. 9988). Spawning takes place from June-July in the mid-Atlantic region; July-August in the Gulf of Maine and to the north of Georges Bank, and August-September on the Scotian Shelf (Ref. 58452). Marketed fresh, smoked and frozen; fresh fish are exported to European markets; eaten fried, broiled, microwaved and baked (Ref. 9988).
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none. Spawning appears to be strongly influenced by water temperature, and annual variations occur both in the peak and the range of the spawning period, which may influence considerably the growth of juveniles.
IUCN Red List Status: Near Threatened (NT), assessed 2015-01-06. Resilience: Medium (K=0.18-0.4;tm=2-3; tmax=12).

Commercial or Environmental Importance

An important commercial fish in Area 21, but not found in signifi cant quantities in Area 31. Marketed fresh, frozen, and smoked.

References

Bigelow, H.B. and W.C. Schroeder. 1953. Fishes of the Gulf of Maine. U.S. Fish & Wildl. Serv. Fish. Bull., 53:1-577.
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)Vol.10:442 p.
Liem, A.H. and W.B. Scott. 1966. Fishes of the Atlantic coast of Canada. Fish. Res. Bd. Can. Bull., (155):485 p.
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.
Pauly, D. (1989) Food consumption by tropical and temperate fish populations: some generalizations. J. Fish Biol. 35(Suppl.A):11-20.
Hesler, T.E., F.P. Almeida and D.E. Waldron (1995) Biology and fisheries of north-west Atlantic hake (silver hake: M. bilinearis). p. 203-237. In J. Alheit and T.J. Pitcher (eds.) Hake:Biology, fisheries and markets. Chapman & Hall, London, 478 p.
Lloris, D., J. Matallanas and P. Oliver (2005) Hakes of the world (Family Merlucciidae). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of hake species known to date. FAO Spec. Cat. Fish. Purp. 2:57p. Rome: FAO.

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