Blue Ling

Lower jaw longer than upper; barbel shorter than eye. Second dorsal fin with 69 to 83 rays; anal fin with 70 to 81 rays; pelvic fin reaching beyond end of pectoral fin. Colour: dorsally grey to brown, shading to white ventrally. Posterior region of vertical fins dark with pale margins.

Southwestern Barents Sea, sometimes north to Spitsbergen, west to Greenland and Newfoundland; southern coast of Iceland, around the British Isles and south to Morocco and into the Mediterranean.

Reaches 155 cm total length.

Bottom-dwellingat depths from 150 to 1000, mostly from 350 to 500 m,on muddy bottoms. The males reach first maturity at 9 years (75 cm), and the females at 11 years (88 cm). Spawns from April to May at 500 to 1 000 m depth from W. Scotland to Norway and from the Faeroes to S. Iceland; and from the end of winter to early spring at 500-600 m depth in the Mediterranean. Females grow faster than males:at 3 years, 40cm; then 5-6 cm every year. Seventeen-year-old males reach 115 cm and 20 year-old females, 155 cm. Feeds on crustaceans and fish (flatfishes, gobies, rocklings).

Commercially fished with bottom trawls and longlines, especially in the north-eastern Atlantic. The catch reported for 1987 in the FAO Yearbook of Fishery Statistics totalled 27 365 metric tons, all from the northeastern Atlantic (France: ca. 13300 t, Faeroe Islands: 7000 t, Norway: ca. 4490 t, and others). Also taken in industrial and artisanal fisheries in the Mediterranean. Marketed frozen and as fresh fillets (Mediterranean), but, also reduced to fish meal.

Lower jaw longer than upper jaw; barbel shorter than eye diameter. Back gray-brown, grading to white ventrally. Posterior portions of vertical fins dark with pale margins.

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Analspines: 0; Analsoft rays: 70 - 81

Found mostly from 350-500 m depth on muddy bottoms. Feed on crustaceans and fish (flatfishes, gobies, rocklings) (Ref. 1371).

fisheries: commercial

The blue ling (Molva dypterygia) is a member of the cod family from the North Atlantic. It is usually 70 to 110 cm long, but the maximum length is 155 cm. Blue ling feed on fish (flatfishes, gobies, rocklings) and crustaceans and benthic invertebrates. The fish reaches sexual maturity at the age of six to 12 years.

Feeds on crustaceans and fish, such as flatfishes, gobies and rocklings

Northwest Atlantic: Newfoundland

Occasionally found in Canadian Atlantic waters. Found mainly at depths of 350- 500 m, on muddy bottoms.

benthic

Known from seamounts and knolls