The European hake, Merluccius merluccius, known in Icelandic as lýsingur, belongs to the order of cod-like fishes. Renowned as a significant predator of the Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean, this species is part of the fabric of many European coastal fisheries.
The European hake possesses a distinctive appearance with a long and cylindrical body, a large head, and a wide mouth packed with sharp teeth. Adults are typically blue-grey or brownish on the back, silvery on the sides, and pale on the underside. They can reach up to 180 cm, but most individuals are around 100 cm in length, with males usually smaller than females.
A wide range but a rare visitor to Iceland
While the European hake is abundant from Norway down to Mauritania, including the British Isles, Mediterranean, and Black Seas, its presence in Icelandic waters is unusual. It tends to congregate along the British Isles, the southern reaches of Spain, and waters off North Africa. In the North Atlantic, it is found in areas including the Bay of Biscay, the Norwegian coast, and even as far north as Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The first hake recorded near Iceland appeared in 1910 when four specimens were caught by a German trawler southwest of Eldeyjarbanki at a depth between 150 and 170 metres.
The hake’s typical habitat ranges from 70 metres down to around 400 metres, although they can be found as deep as 1,000 metres and as shallow as 30 metres. During daylight hours hake rest close to the seabed, but become active at night, rising up in the water column in search of food.
Role in fisheries and food webs
European hake is a prized species in West European fishing, caught mostly by trawl or longline and typically landed fresh, frozen, salted, dried, or canned. Spain, France, and Italy have led the way in landing this species, with hundreds of thousands of tonnes reported over past decades. In 1996, for example, nearly 92,000 tonnes of hake were landed, with major hauls from both the North Atlantic and Mediterranean areas. In Iceland, however, catches have been sparse due to its marginal presence.
Apex predators in their ecosystems, adult hakes feed on small fish such as blue whiting, mackerel, pilchard, and herring, the last of which earned hake its nickname ‘herring hake’ in some regions. Juvenile hakes start life preying on tiny crustaceans and gradually shift to larger fish and cephalopods. As hake mature, they become more piscivorous, and large individuals have even been recorded preying on smaller members of their own species, cannibalism can make up a significant part of their diet.
The species is capable of living up to 20 years, but it grows slowly and mature females do not spawn until about their seventh year of life. Each female can produce between two and seven million eggs during long spawning seasons, depending on the population and location. These characteristics, alongside high demand, mean they are vulnerable to overfishing in many parts of their range.
Sources
- Wikipedia
- Wikipedia (Icelandic) in Icelandic
