Habitat: Benthopelagic Main role: Predator Trophic level: 4,6
Diet: Juvenile cod are pelagic and feed mainly on copepods. At a size of approximately 7 cm they adopt a demersal way of life with a diet that initially comprised of crustaceans. As they grow, bigger fish become increasingly important as prey.
Threats: Highly commercial and vulnerable (IUCN red list). Cod is a highly fished top predator, which has seen several stock collapses in the 1990s around the world due to overfishing. In the North Sea cod stocks seem to be slowly recovering. Cod are also very sensitive to fluctuations in temperature.
Cod is a month-by-month, computer generated data layer following calculations made by the ecosystem simulation (EwE).
Different pressures generate by human activities (noise, bottom disturbance, surface disturbance, artificial substrate) have different, complex effects on marine species in terms of movement, survival and procreation.
Cod are caught by all fishing fleets, but mostly by bottom trawl.
Cod is a cold-water species which prefers water temperatures around 10°C. Cod typically mature at 3 years. Cod can grow up to more than 1.5 meters long. However, due to overfishing, such large fish are rarely found in the North Sea nowadays.
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Co-funded by the European Union.