Gadiformes

Gadiformes is an order of ray-finned fishes that includes cods, hakes, pollocks, and their relatives. Many species are adapted to marine life and form major commercial fisheries.

Actinopterygii: The class of ray-finned fishes, whose fins are supported by thin bony rays. Gadiformes is one order within this broad fish class.
Lateral line: A sensory system that detects water movement and pressure changes along a fish's body. It helps gadiforms sense nearby prey and environmental movement underwater.
Atlantic cod: A large North Atlantic gadid fish, Gadus morhua, harvested for food for centuries. Its fisheries illustrate the economic importance and ecological vulnerability of Gadiformes.
Collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery: The severe decline of northern cod off Newfoundland that led to a Canadian fishing moratorium in 1992. This collapse became a defining example of the consequences of overfishing a gadiform stock.
Perciformes: A traditional order of perch-like ray-finned fishes, including many familiar coastal and reef species. Its members belong to a different fish lineage from cods and their gadiform relatives.
Teleostei: The diverse group of bony fishes characterized by highly mobile jaws and a largely ossified skeleton. Gadiformes belongs to this major radiation of ray-finned fishes.
Swim bladder: A gas-filled organ that helps many bony fishes control buoyancy. Buoyancy control supports the water-column lifestyles of many gadiform species.
Alaska pollock: A North Pacific gadid fish, Gadus chalcogrammus, supporting one of the world's largest fisheries. This species shows how gadiforms supply large-scale seafood markets.
Overfishing: Fishing at a rate that reduces a population below levels that can sustain its productivity. Heavy exploitation has depleted some gadiform populations and altered their age structure.
Salmoniformes: An order of ray-finned fishes that includes salmon and trout. Salmoniformes is a separate order, despite overlap with gadiforms in northern marine ecosystems.

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