Pollock Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Streamlined, torpedo-shaped body, more slender than cod
• Lower jaw noticeably projects beyond the upper jaw, unlike cod's even jaws
• Little to no chin barbel, or just a tiny remnant
• Greenish-brown to olive back with a pale or silvery lateral line running high on the body
• Slightly forked tail fin
• Three dorsal and two anal fins, following the same layout as other cod-family fish
• Forked tail fin, more deeply notched than the square tail typical of Atlantic cod

Common look-alikes

• Atlantic Cod: has even jaws with a well-developed barbel and a pale curved lateral line, unlike pollock's projecting jaw and near-absent barbel
• Haddock: shows a dark shoulder blotch that pollock lacks, along with a straighter, lower-set lateral line
• Coalfish/Saithe, a close pollock relative: nearly identical, best separated by subtle lateral line curvature and range overlap in European waters

Where you'll see one

Rocky reefs, kelp beds, and open water of the cold North Atlantic, often schooling at mid-depths in loose aggregations rather than hugging the bottom the way cod typically does.