The merlucciidae, commonly called merluccid

hake Hake is the common name for fish in the Merlucciidae family of the northern and southern oceans and the Phycidae family of the northern oceans. Hake is a commercially important fish in the same taxonomic order, Gadiformes, as cod and haddo ...

s , are a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of cod-like fish, including most

s. They are native to cold water in the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

oceans, and typically are found at depths greater than in subtropical, temperate, sub-

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

or sub-

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

regions. The best known species are in the genera ''Macruronus'' and ''Merluccius''. These predatory fish are up to in length, though most only reach about half that length, inhabiting the waters of the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

and upper

continental slope A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters. It is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges. The continental margi ...

, where they feed on small fish such as

lanternfish Lanternfish (or myctophids, from the Greek language, Greek μυκτήρ ''myktḗr'', "nose" and ''ophis'', "serpent") are small mesopelagic fish of the large family (biology), family Myctophidae. One of two families in the order Myctophiformes, ...

es. Several species are important commercial fish, for example the

blue grenadier The blue grenadier (also known as hoki, blue hake, New Zealand whiptail, or whiptail hake, ''Macruronus novaezelandiae'') is a Merlucciidae, merluccid hake of the family (biology), family Merlucciidae found around southern Australia (continent), A ...

(''Macruronus novaezelandiae'') that is fished in the southwest Pacific and the North Pacific hake (''Merluccius productus'') that is fished off western North America. The taxonomy of the Merluccidae is not settled, with some authorities raising two or three subfamilies, the Merluccinae, Macruroninae, and Steindachneriinae, while other authorities raise the latter two into their own families, the Macruronidae and the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

Steindachneriidae. This would mean the genera would be arranged as: * Steindachneriidae ** ''Steindachneria'' * Macruronidae ** ''Lyconodes'' ** ''Lyconus'' ** ''Macruronus'' * Merlucciidae '' ss'' ** ''Merluccius''

References

External links

Terra Curanda Fishery Statistics
Marine fish families Euteleostei families {{Gadiformes-stub