saffron cod

Open encyclopedia reference

The saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) is a commercially harvested fish closely related to true cods (genus Gadus). It is dark grey-green to brown, with spots on its sides and pale towards the belly. It may grow to 55 cm and weigh up to 1.3 kg. Its range spans the North Pacific, from the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk in the west to the northern Gulf of Alaska and Sitka, Alaska, in the east. It also occurs in the Chukchi Sea (Arctic Ocean). It normally occurs in shallow coastal waters at less than 60 m depth but may also be found at depths up to 200 m. The saffron cod may also enter brackish and even fresh waters, occurring quite far up rivers and streams, but remaining within regions of tidal influence. Saffron cods begin to mature during their third year of life. They feed on fish and small crustaceans. They are commercially fished in many areas of the northwestern Pacific. The country with the largest catch is Russia.

Wikipedia contributors, Saffron cod; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:54:38.049309+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Eleginus gracilis (Tilesius, 1810)

Name authority

(Tilesius, 1810)

Common name

saffron cod

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Order

Gadiformes

Family

Gadidae

Genus

Eleginus

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. orderGadiformes
11. familyGadidae Rafinesque, 1810
12. genusEleginus Fischer, 1813
13. speciesEleginus gracilis (Tilesius, 1810)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Eleginus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 20 records assigned to Gadidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=254537 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3972L. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.