BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE BIOLOGY OF THE COD, GADUS MORHUA, 



AND RELATED SPECIES 



By John P. Wise, Fishery Research Biologist 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 



This bibliograpliy was first assembled as an aid 

 to biologieal studies of cod {Gadus inorhua) carried 

 on at the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Bio- 

 logical Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass. It was 

 planned to include only papers on the cod of the 

 northwestern Atlantic, but it soon became ap- 

 parent that such a compilation would liave. limited 

 value. Consequently, the bibliograpliy was ex- 

 panded to include information on the general 

 biology of cod. Papers on Gadus species and 

 closely related forms otJicr than G. morhua of the 

 Atlantic were included, but no special search was 

 made for them. 



Certain criteria were observed in assembling 

 this bibliography, namely: that, ^\^th few excep- 

 tions, the material be in permanent printed form; 

 that the subject matter be cod biology; that the 

 publication be available to me for reading and 

 abstracting. 



A few papers primarilj- on technology were in- 

 cluded because of information contamed on basic 

 biological problems, e.g., the chemical composition 

 of the cod or its bacterial flora. Those interested 

 in the literature on technologj^ per se are referred 

 to the excellent bibliography by McPhail, Xo. 657. 



No evaluation of quality or merit for mclusion 

 in the bibliography was made. Articles in print 

 in scholarly jom-nals, books, and more popular 

 ■works are included. Annotations are usually 

 limited to cross-referencing as an aid in finding 

 related paj)ers. Tiiat the material is not all of 

 equal value is partially reflected in the index, 

 where the most important contributions in various 

 biological areas are indicated. 



Much has been j)ublished about cod, probably 

 for two reasons. First, the cod is one of the 

 world's most important food fishes and its biology 

 and ecologj- have been widelj" studied and reported 

 on. Second, it reaches rather large size, is com- 

 mon, and is fairly easy to maintain in captivity 

 because of its tolerance of widely varying tempera- 



ture and salinity coniHlions. As a consequence, 

 it has often been utilized l)y biologists and experi- 

 mentalists for studies on a "typical" marine fish. 

 As a result, pi()l)nl)ly more is loiown of the 

 anatomy and physiology of tlie cod than of any 

 other marine fish. In addition, physiologists have 

 worked with captive fisli in liatcherios both for 

 purely scientific reasons and to learn more about 

 a particular phase of tlie biology of the cod for 

 the use of fishery scientists. Since a great deal 

 is known about tlie general biology- of these fish, 

 it is much easier to employ cod in studies of a 

 particular plienomenon tlian to start lilindly with 

 an unknown subject. 



The bibliographj- is incomplete in some re- 

 spects. Specific weak:iess will be found in the 

 literature pubhshed in the Scandinavian and 

 Russian languages. This is partly the result of 

 the unavailability of material, but more particu- 

 larly to mj' unfamiliarity witii these languages. 

 Fortunately, contemporary Scandinavian workers 

 often publish in Englisii, and many Russian 

 papers carrj' an Englisii summaiy or have been 

 translated in part or in full. The lack of com- 

 pleteness is also partly due to the law of diminish- 

 ing returns. With the attainment of iil)out a 

 thousand references I find it more iuid more 

 dimciilt to find those remaining, and there is 

 little hope that they may all ever be found. 

 At the same time, it is probable tliat most of the 

 more important works liave been found and 

 abstracted. 



Tlie citations are largely self-explanatory. The 

 name and initials of each author are given as 

 published. Because of inconsistency m spelling 

 and in completeness of names, the work of the 

 same man may appear under slightly varying 

 names. I'nfortiiiiatcly, differing practices in 

 transliteration also contribute to inconsistency 



ol names. 



483 



