The silver hake, Atlantic hake, or New England hake (''Merluccius bilinearis'') is a

merluccid hake The Merlucciidae, commonly called merluccid hakes , are a family of cod-like fish, including most hakes. available for download at http://www.fao.org They are native to cold water in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and typically are found at de ...

of the genus ''

Merluccius ''Merluccius'' is a genus of merluccid hakes from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, where mainly found relatively deep. The generic name is derived from French ''mer'' ("sea") and Latin ''lucius'', " pike." Species The 14 recognized species in th ...

'', found in the northwest

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 ...

. It is highly predatory and typically feeds on fish and crustaceans.

Appearance

The silver hake is a long, thin species with a protruding lower jaw and two dorsal fins. This hake is named as such for its silvery coloring, while darker dorsally. They typically grow to be about , but can reach a maximum length of .

Occurrence

The silver hake typically inhabits relatively warm

bottom water Bottom water is the lowermost water mass in a water body, by its bottom, with distinct characteristics, in terms of physics, chemistry, and ecology. Oceanography Bottom water consists of cold, dense water near the ocean floor. This water is charac ...

s, where temperatures are around 5-10 °C.1. Reed D, Plourde S, Cook A, et al. Response of scotian shelf silver hake (merluccius bilinearis) to environmental variability. Fish Oceanogr. 2019;28(3):256-272. https://doi.org/10.1111/fog.12406. doi: 10.1111/fog.12406. The species is found in the northwest Atlantic Ocean at depths between . It is found along the eastern coast of Canada and United States, as well as in the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

, but it is most common between

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

and

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

References

* An Annotated and Illustrated Catalogue of Cods, Hakes, Grenadiers and other Gadiform Fishes Known to Date.Daniel M.Cohen Tadashi Inada Tomio Iwamoto Nadia Scialabba 1990. FAO Fisheries Synopsis. No. 125, Vol.10. Rome, FAO. 1990. 442p. Merluccius Fish described in 1814 {{Gadiformes-stub