North Pacific hake
Merluccius productus (Ayres, 1855)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The North Pacific hake, Pacific hake, Pacific whiting, or jack salmon (Merluccius productus) is a ray-finned fish in the genus Merluccius, found in the northeast Pacific Ocean from northern Vancouver Island to the northern part of the Gulf of California. It is a silver-gray fish with black speckling, growing to a length of 90 cm (3 ft). It is a migratory offshore fish and undergoes a daily vertical migration from the surface to the seabed at depths down to about 1,000 m (3,300 ft). It is the target of an important commercial fishery off the West Coast of the United States, and annual quotas are used to prevent overfishing. Pacific Hake (whiting) contains an enzyme in its tissues that can rapidly spoil the fish in under 12 hours, causing the tissues to disintegrate. Fisheries that target Pacific Hake typically deliver the fish to processing plants within several hours of being caught. At the processing plants, an enzyme inhibitor is added to the raw fish to slow spoilage and neutralize the specific enzyme responsible for rapid deterioration.
Wikipedia contributors, North Pacific hake; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:15:58.801388+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Merluccius productus (Ayres, 1855)
- Name authority
- (Ayres, 1855)
- Common name
- North Pacific hake
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Gadiformes
- Family
- Merlucciidae
- Genus
- Merluccius
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · 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.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderGadiformes
- familyMerlucciidae Rafinesque, 1815
- subfamilyMerlucciinae Rafinesque, 1815
- genusMerluccius Rafinesque, 1810
- speciesMerluccius productus (Ayres, 1855)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Merluccius. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Panama hakeMerluccius angustimanus Garman, 1899 | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Chilean hakeMerluccius australis (Hutton, 1872) | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Atlantic hakeMerluccius bilinearis (Mitchill, 1814) | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| English hakeMerluccius gayi (Guichenot, 1848) | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Argentine hakeMerluccius hubbsi Marini, 1933 | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| European hakeMerluccius merluccius (Linnaeus, 1758) | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Patagonian hakeMerluccius patagonicus Lloris & Matallanas, 2003 | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| offshore hakeMerluccius albidus (Mitchill, 1818) | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cortez hakeMerluccius hernandezi Mathews, 1985 | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| deep-water Cape hakeMerluccius paradoxus Franca, 1960 | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Benguela hakeMerluccius polli Cadenat, 1950 | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Merluccius tasmanicus Matallanas & Lloris, 2006 | MerlucciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Homalopomus trowbridgii Girard, 1856 Girard, 1856 | synonym |
| Merlangus productus Ayres, 1855 Ayres, 1855 | synonym |
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.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=272458 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:3ZV7D. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.