Home › Volumes › Fishes › The Codfishes
Alaska Codfish — Part 2
Images coming soon.
The ling is disposed to stay in the deeper waters of the lakes it inhabits, and is not often seen in the shallows. Among the many common names by which this fish is known may be mentioned ling, lake lawyer, burbot and freshwater cusk.
This species is so unlike any other American freshwater fish that it can readily be identified by the accompanying figure.
GENUS UROPHYCIS GILL
The Codlings, or Hakes
In this genus the body is rather elongate, the head sub-conic, mouth rather large, maxillary reaching to below the eye; lower jaw included; chin with a small barbel; jaws and vomer with broad bands of subequal pointed teeth; palatines toothless; dorsal fins 2, the first sometimes produced at the tip, the second long, similar to the anal; ventrals wide apart, filamentous, each of 3 slender rays, closely jointed, appearing like one bifid filament; gill-membranes somewhat connected, narrowly joined to the isthmus.
This genus contains 6 or 7 species, only 2 of which are of value as food. These are the white hake, U. tenuis, and the squirrel hake. These 2 species are found on our Atlantic Coast from Labrador to Cape Hatteras. They are abundant northward, and are found at a depth as great as 300 fathoms. The two species are very closely related, differing chiefly in the larger scales of the squirrel hake.
They are both ground-fish, remaining close to the bottom, and rarely coming to the surface. According to Captain Atwood they are much more inclined to take the hook by night than by day, and are found on muddy bottom during summer and autumn along the coast of Maine and Massachusetts. They are in best condition during the fall, and if properly prepared are a tolerably good table-fish. They probably spawn in summer, as shown by fish taken then and the size of young seen in the fall.
They are fished for extensively off the New England coast, the amount landed at Gloucester in 1899 aggregating more than 10,000,000 pounds. The white hake constitutes the larger part of the catch. The shore fisheries are by means of hand lines on moonlight nights on muddy bottoms in 10 to 40 or 50 fathoms. The schooner fishery is carried on in much deeper water with trawls and hand-lines. The average size of the hake taken probably does not exceed 5 to 10 pounds, though each species reaches a much larger size. Examples weighing as much as 40 pounds have been reported.
Hake are used extensively for corning, and as boneless cod and shredded cod. They are also smoked in small quantities. They also yield a valuable oil, and the air-bladder or sound is very valuable for the making of isinglass and glue, and even as food.