Cod

Cod, bottom-feeding fish (family Gadidae) of the northern Atlantic and the Pacific. The record weight is 211 lb (95.7 kg) for an Atlantic cod (Gadus morrhua), but the usual range is 2 to 25 lb (0.9 to 11.3 kg). Females lay up to 6 million eggs at a time. Cod fishing has been important in Europe since the 16th century, and Europeans soon discovered the New England and Newfoundland “cod banks,” which played an important part in the colonization of the new continent. The cod were salted, their livers yielding an important vitamin-rich oil (cod liver oil), and the swimbladder was used for isinglass, a very pure form of gelatin.