page_title: Haddock
section_title: Fisheries
hierarchical_section_title: Haddock / Fisheries
caption_attribution_description: English: Landings of haddock in the western Atlantic.
context_page_description: The haddock is a saltwater fish from the family Gadidae, the true cods. It is the only species in the monotypic genus Melanogrammus. It is found in the North Atlantic Ocean and associated seas where it is an important species for fisheries, especially in northern Europe where it is marketed fresh, frozen and smoked; smoked varieties include the Finnan haddie and the Arbroath smokie.
context_section_description: Haddock is fished year-round using gear such as Danish seine nets, trawlers, long lines and gill nets and is often caught in mixed species fishery with other groundfish species such as cod and whiting. The main fishing grounds in the eastern Atlantic are in the Barents Sea, around Iceland, around the Faeroe Islands,  in the North Sea, Celtic Sea, and in the English Channel. Landings in the eastern Atlantic have fluctuated  around 200–350 thousand tonnes in the period 1980–2017. During the 1980s, the largest portion of the catch was taken at Rockall but from about 2000, the majority of the catch is caught in the Barents Sea. All the stocks in eastern Atlantic are assessed by ICES which publish a recommendations on an annual basis for Total Allowable Catch.
  In the western Atlantic the eastern Georges Bank haddock stock is jointly assessed on an annual basis by Canada and the United States and the stock is collaboratively managed through the Canada-United States Transboundary Management Guidance Committee, this committee was established in 2000. The commercial catch of haddock in North America was approximately 40–60 thousand tonnes per year between 1920  and 1960, this declined sharply in the late 1960s to between 5 and 30 thousand tonnes per year. Despite a few good year classes post 1970, landings have not returned to historical levels.
  Haddock currently resides on the Greenpeace seafood red due to concerns regarding the impact of bottom trawls on the marine environment. In contrast, Monterey Bay Aquarium considers haddock a "good alternative". Many haddock fisheries have been certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. All seven stocks assessed in the eastern Atlantic are currently considered by ICES to be harvested sustainably. The haddock populations in the western Atlantic (offshore grounds of Georges Bank off New England and Nova Scotia) are also considered to be harvested sustainably.
caption: Landings of haddock in the western Atlantic in the period 1960-2015.
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