The red hake or squirrel hake, ''Urophycis chuss'', is a species of

phycid hake The Phycidae are a family of hakes in the order Gadiformes. They are native to the Atlantic Ocean, but the juveniles of some species enter estuaries. Sometimes this family is classified as the subfamily Phycinae of the cod family, Gadidae The ...

. It is found in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

at depths between 10 and 500 m. It grows to about 30 in (75 cm) and 7 lb (3.2 kg). Red hake are edible, and are sought out by recreational fisherman as a gamefish.

About

Red hake are distributed from the

Gulf of St. Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence () is the outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. The gulf is a semi-enclosed sea, covering an area of about and containing about of water, at an average depth of . ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. They are most abundant from the western

Gulf of Maine The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is bounded by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and by Cape Sable Island at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northeast ...

to southern

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. Red hake prefer water temperatures between 5 and 12 °C, causing them to migrate seasonally. Throughout the spring and summer, they migrate into more shallow waters to spawn. During winter, they tend to move to deeper waters offshore in the Gulf of Maine and along southern New England and Georges Bank all the way to wrecks off the coast of New Jersey. Red hake spawn from May until November.

Appearance

Depending on the environment, red hake vary in color. Most tend to be a reddish brown to olive-brown color on their sides with pale tan spots. Underneath, they vary in shades of white. Red hake have a barbel on their chin as they are a member of the hake family. Their dorsal fin is triangular, but their second dorsal and anal fins are long, continuous, and do not attach to the tail fin, much like an eel. The head is small, but has a large mouth with many small teeth.

References

Sources

* Phycidae Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fish described in 1792 Taxa named by Johann Julius Walbaum {{Gadiformes-stub