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Fish

Whiting

Merlangius merlangus

Merlangius merlangus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Gadidae WoRMS 126438

Reference photos

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A slim, cod-like fish, blue-green above and silvery-white below, with three close-set dorsal fins and two anal fins. The chin barbel is rudimentary or absent, a small dark spot marks the base of each pectoral fin, and the brown (not black) lateral line separates it from a haddock.

Depth

10-200 m, usually 30-100 m

Size

Up to 91.5 cm total length, commonly about 23.5 cm; to 3.1 kg and 20 years old

Habitat

Benthopelagic in marine and brackish water, mainly over mud and gravel bottoms but also sand and rock

Behaviour

Oceanodromous; moves out to the open sea only after its first year, and larvae and juveniles associate with jellyfish

Diet

I eat

  • Small fish such as sandeels, herring, sprat and Norway pout
  • Shrimps, crabs and other bottom-living crustaceans
  • Polychaete worms, molluscs and squid

Eats me

Where you'd find it

Found all around Britain and Ireland, so you have a chance of seeing it anywhere on the coast.

ChannelCeltic SeaNorth SeaIrish SeaW of IrelandW of Scotland
Often seenWhere PEBL filmsBased on marine survey records (OBIS). Blank seas can mean nobody has looked there, not that the animal is absent.

Sources

Open-access references behind this page. Every statement on this page was read out of one of them; anything that could not be traced to a source was taken off the page rather than left standing. Each link was checked on the date shown, and confirmed then to be about this species.

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