Alaskan pollock

The Alaskan pollock is smaller than the Atlantic cod, measuring on average between 30 and 80 centimetres. It weighs between 600 and 800 grams.

Its delicate, white meat is very fine and tasty. It is particularly suitable for coating with breadcrumbs or flour.

The Alaskan pollock contains valuable Omega-3 fatty acids.

Its habitat extends from North Pacific coastal areas in Japan and Central America, to the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska.

These fish live near to the sea bed, and swim in shoals at depths of 30 - 400 metres.

The Alaskan pollock eats ground animals, sand eels, herrings and small pollocks

The Alaskan pollock has similar characteristics to the cod, and is in the same family. With its long body, wide gills and beard on the lower lip, the pollock looks very elegant.

The term “Alaskan pollock” has been coined by the food industry, for the purpose of marketing fish sticks which are made with these fish.

bottom otter trawls (OTB)

OTB is the abbreviation for the fishing method bottom otter trawls. The funnel-shaped body of the net, which consists of different mesh sizes, is provided with a wing on each side at the front, which together with the upper and lower tension form a net opening reinforced by lines. The horizontal opening of the net is mainly achieved by two otter boards. The vertical opening is achieved by buoyancy bodies and weights on the bottom rope. The so-called ground tackle is adapted to the ground conditions. It usually consists of rubber discs, rollers or other spacers mounted on steel wire and is designed to maximise the catching capacity of the net and at the same time protect it from damage caused by uneven ground. Undesirable by-catches in this fishery are currently reduced by mesh sizes and mesh shapes and by sorting, selecting or guiding grids, especially at the end of the net (codend). So-called escape windows of square meshes in turn allow smaller fish to escape, while larger animals cannot pass through these windows.

Northwest Pacific / Sakhalin, Iturup, Bering Sea

Northeast Pacific / Gulf of Alaska, eastern Bering Sea

bottom otter trawls (OTB)