Alaska pollock

Gadus chalcogrammus

A cold-water cod relative of the North Pacific, forming huge schools and supporting major surimi and roe fisheries.

Key facts

Alaska pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) is a carnivore animal classified as Fish · Gadiformes · Gadidae.
Primary habitats are open ocean · coast, with a range across Pacific Ocean · Arctic Ocean · Nearctic · Palearctic.
Activity is cathemeral, sociality is herd, and conservation status is LC (Least Concern).
A cold-water cod relative of the North Pacific, forming huge schools and supporting major surimi and roe fisheries.
Occurs on shelves and slopes of the Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Gulf of Alaska, and waters around Japan, using cold midwater and near-bottom layers.

Habitat range map

Native rangeOccasional / Transient

Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)

Occurs on shelves and slopes of the Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Gulf of Alaska, and waters around Japan, using cold midwater and near-bottom layers.

The body is slender, olive-gray to brownish above with mottling and pale silvery sides. The chin barbel is small.

Large schools move through midwater and shift depth by day, season, and life stage. Spawning aggregations form in regional grounds.

It eats krill, copepods, small fish, and squid, shifting from plankton-heavy diets toward more fish prey as it grows.

Adults release many eggs into the water from winter into spring. Eggs and larvae drift with currents.

Alaska pollock is one of the world's largest whitefish fisheries, managed with attention to age structure and changing ocean temperatures.