432 btjijLetin of the biteeau of fisheries 



153. Haddock {Melanogrammus seglifinus Linnaeus) 

 White-eye 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2542. 



Description. — The most obvious characters in which the haddock differs from 

 the cod are its black lateral line (that of cod and pollock is paler than the general 

 ground tint) and the presence of a dusky blotch on the side over the middle of the 

 pectoral fin and close below the lateral line. Furthermore its first dorsal fin is 

 relatively higher than that of a cod and considerably higher than either the second 

 or third dorsal, more acutely triangular in outline, and with slightly concave 

 margin. The margin of the haddock's tail is more concave or "lunate" than that 

 of the cod, the second and third dorsals and both anals are more angular than is 

 usually the case with cod, though similarly rhomboid in outline, and the two anals 

 differ more in size in a haddock than in a cod. The haddock's mouth is relatively 

 the smaller, not gaping back to below the eye, and the lower profile of the face is 

 straight and the upper only slightly roimded, giving the nose a characteristic wedge- 

 shaped outline in side view. The upper jaw projects further beyond the lower in 

 the haddock than in the cod, and the snout is usually more pointed and the body 

 more compressed, but the general arrangement of the fins is the same and there are 

 about the same number of dorsal fin rays in haddock as in cod (14 to 17, 20 to 24, 

 and 19 to 22, in the first, second, and third fins, respectively). While the anals 

 average one or two more rays in each fin (21 to 25 and 20 to 24), individual cod may 

 have more anal rays than individual haddock. Finally, the haddock is a slimmer 

 fish than the cod and its scales (which clothe it from nose to tail) are smaller — 

 indeed hardly visible through the mucus with which the skin is coated. 



Color. — A live haddock is very different from the pale dirty gray object to be 

 seen in the market. When fresh from the water the top of the head and the back 

 down to the lateral line are dark pm-plish gray, paling below the latter to a beautiful 

 silvery gray with pinkish reflections, with the black lateral line and the sooty 

 shoulder patch just mentioned standing out vividly. This patch — the "devil's 

 mark" — is indefinitely outlined and varies in size and in distinctness, but we have 

 never seen a haddock (nor heard of one) lacking it. The belly and lower sides of 

 the head are opaque white. The dorsal, pectoral, and caudal fins are dark gray; 

 the anals pale like the lower sides and black specked at the base; the ventrals white 

 more or less dotted with black. Haddock usually run very uniform in color, but 

 occasionally one shows from one to foxu" dark transverse bars or splotches in addition 

 to the black shoulder blotch. Several of these serially striped haddock have been 

 taken in Passamaquoddy Bay,' and we have seen such near Mount Desert. 



Size. — The haddock is a smaller fish than the cod, the largest on record being 

 37 inches long and weighing 243^ pounds.^ The largest among 1,300 fish measiu-ed 

 and weighed by Welsh near Gloucester during the spring of 1913 measured 35J^ 

 inches in length and weighed about 16^ pounds. Very few, however, were as 



' Prince, 1917, p. 86. 



< Day. Tbe fishes of Great Britain and Ireland, 1880-1884. London. 



