North Pacific hake
| North Pacific Hake Fish | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Gadiformes |
| Family: | Merlucciidae |
| Subfamily: | Merlucciinae |
| Genus: | Merluccius |
| Species: | M. productus |
| Binomial name | |
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Merluccius productus (Ayres, 1855) |
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The North Pacific hake, Pacific hake, Pacific whiting, or jack salmon (Merluccius productus) is a ray-finned fish in the genus Merluccius, found in the northeast Pacific Ocean from northern Vancouver Island to the northern part of the Gulf of California. It is a silver-gray fish with black speckling, growing to a length of 90 cm (3 ft). It is a migratory offshore fish and undergoes a daily vertical migration from the surface to the seabed at depths down to about 1,000 m (3,300 ft). It is the object of an important commercial fishery off the West Coast of the United States, and annual quotas are used to prevent overfishing. An expansion of the range of the Humboldt squid is causing concern because it is a voracious predator of the North Pacific hake.
Its length is about 3 ft (90 cm) and it can live up to 15 years. Its coloration is metallic silver-gray with black speckling and pure silvery white on the belly. North Pacific hake have two dorsal fins and a truncated caudal fin. Their pectoral fin tips usually reach to or beyond the origin of their anal fin. The caudal fin is always .
The North Pacific hake spawns from January to June. They may spawn more than once per season, so absolute fecundity is difficult to determine. Historically, inshore female Pacific hake matured at 15 in (37 cm) and four to five years of age. Currently, length at 50% maturity for females in the Port Susan North Pacific hake population is about 8.5 in (21.5 cm), compared to 11.7 in (29.8 cm) in the 1980s. Females mature at three to four years of age and 13.4 to 15.75 in (34-40 cm), and nearly all males are mature by age three and as small as 11 in (28 cm).
They occur from the surface to depths of 1,000 m (3,300 ft). North Pacific hake are nocturnal feeders that undergo daily vertical migrations off the bottom to feed on a variety of fishes and invertebrates. Its diet includes shrimp, plankton, and smaller fishes. They are an important prey item for sea lions, small cetaceans, and dogfish sharks.
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Wikipedia