Hake facts for kids

Hake are a type of fish that live in the ocean. They belong to two main fish families:

• The Merlucciidae family, found in northern and southern oceans.
• The Phycidae family, found in northern oceans (sometimes considered part of the Gadidae family).

All About Hake Fish

Hake are related to other well-known fish like cod and haddock. They are usually medium to large, weighing from about 0.5 to 3.6 kilograms (1 to 8 pounds). Some hake can grow much larger, up to 27 kilograms (60 pounds)! These fish can be as long as 1 meter (3.3 feet) and live for up to 14 years.

You can find hake in both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. They prefer deep waters, usually between 200 and 350 meters (650 to 1,150 feet) deep. During the day, they stay in these deep areas. But at night, they swim up to shallower waters. Hake are not picky eaters; they will eat almost any prey they find near or on the ocean floor. Male and female hake look very similar.

The Hake Life Cycle

After hake lay their eggs, the eggs float on the surface of the sea. This is where the baby hake, called larvae, start to grow. After some time, these young hake swim down to the bottom of the sea. They usually prefer depths less than 200 meters (650 feet).

Different Kinds of Hake

There are 13 known types of hake in the Merlucciidae family. Some of the well-known ones include:

• Argentine hake (Merluccius hubbsi), found near Argentina.
• Deep-water hake (Merluccius paradoxus), found in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
• European hake (Merluccius merluccius), found off Europe, North Africa, and in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
• North Pacific hake (Merluccius productus), found in the North Pacific.
• Silver hake (Merluccius bilinearis), found in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean.
• Southern hake (Merluccius australis), found near Chile and New Zealand.
• Shallow-water hake (Merluccius capensis), found in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

Not all hake species are important for fishing, but the deep-water and shallow-water hakes grow quickly and are caught the most.

Hake and People: Commercial Use

Hake is a very popular fish, especially in Europe. It's sold in three main ways: fresh, frozen, or as frozen fillets. Europe gets its fresh hake from local fishing and imports. Frozen hake and fillets are mostly imported or processed by European companies.

Where Hake is Eaten Most

Spain eats the most hake in Europe and worldwide. Each person in Spain eats about 6 kilograms (13 pounds) of hake every year! This is about half of all the hake eaten in Europe. Even though people in Spain eat less fish now than they used to, hake still makes up about one-third of all the fish they eat.

In Argentina, hake is a very common fish. Hake Milanesa (a type of breaded cutlet) is a popular dish in almost all restaurants that serve Milanesa, alongside beef and chicken.

Other countries that enjoy a lot of hake include France, Italy, and Portugal.

How Hake is Sold

In Spain, restaurants often buy fresh hake directly from sellers. However, processed hake products are sold by larger fish sellers. You can find hake in many forms at fish markets and supermarkets, such as frozen fillets, or fillets with or without skin.

In France, most fish is bought in supermarkets. Because there isn't enough European hake, French sellers buy fresh hake from countries like Argentina and Namibia. They then often send it to Spain.

In Italy, hotels, restaurants, and supermarkets buy a lot of seafood. But most frozen hake fillets are bought by smaller shops and sellers to sell in markets.

In Ireland, hake is a popular fresh fish from the Atlantic Ocean. You can buy it in supermarkets and from local fishmongers.

In the United Kingdom, hake is sometimes used in the famous dish fish and chips.

In Hungary, fried hake (called "hekk") is a very popular fish in the summer, especially around Lake Balaton and at outdoor markets.

Different Forms of Hake You Can Buy

Hake is sold in many ways:

• Frozen
• As fillets or steaks
• Fresh
• Smoked
• Salted

Tips for Buying Hake

When you buy hake fillets or other hake products, look for white flesh. It should not have any brown, dry, or gray spots. It should also smell fresh, like the sea.

Fishing for Hake

The main way to catch deep-water hake is by trawling, which uses large nets. Shallow-water hake are mostly caught by smaller nets near the coast and by longlining, which uses many baited hooks on a long line.

Hake are found in many places around the world, including:

• The Southwest Atlantic (near Argentina and Uruguay)
• The Southeast Pacific (near Chile and Peru)
• The Southeast Atlantic (near Namibia and South Africa)
• The Southwest Pacific (near New Zealand)
• The Mediterranean and Black Sea (near Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, and France)

The Problem of Overfishing

Unfortunately, too much fishing has caused the number of Argentine hake to drop a lot. About 80% of adult hake seem to have disappeared from Argentine waters. While hake might not vanish completely, there might not be enough left for commercial fishing to be profitable. This also affects many jobs in the fishing industry in Argentina. Because hake is harder to find, its prices have gone up, which means less is exported and the economy is affected.

In Chile, seafood exports, especially Chilean hake, have also decreased. Hake exports dropped by almost 19 percent. A big reason for this was the 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami, which destroyed many fish processing factories.

European hake catches are also much lower than they used to be because hake numbers have gone down in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. This decline could be due to catching too many fish, fishing in ways that harm the environment, catching young fish, or unreported catches.

Protecting Hake: The Namibia Example

According to the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the only hake species that is not currently being overfished is Cape hake, found off Namibia. Namibia has actually increased the amount of hake its fishermen are allowed to catch, from 130,000 tons in 2009 to 145,000 tons in 2010.

The Namibian Ministry of Fisheries has very strict rules for catching hake. For example, there are "closed seasons" for hake, usually in September and October, which last about two months. This rule helps the hake population grow back. They also have other rules, like not allowing trawling in waters shallower than 200 meters (650 feet). This helps protect the homes of other sea creatures and reduces the number of unwanted fish caught by accident.

Hake in New Places

In 1885, a book called Fishermens' Guide by Frank Forrester mentioned that hake were moved from the coast of Ireland to Cape Cod in Massachusetts, United States. It's not clear which exact type of hake it was, but the book said: "This is an Irish salt water fish, similar in appearance to the tom cod. In Galway bay, and other sea inlets of Ireland, the hake is exceedingly abundant, and is taken in great numbers. It is also found in England and France. Since the Irish immigration to America, the hake has followed in the wake of their masters, as it is now found in New York bay, in the waters around Boston, and off Cape Cod. Here it is called the stock fish, and the Bostonians call them poor Johns. It is a singular fact that until within a few years this fish was never seen in America. It does not grow as large here as in Europe, though here they are from ten to eighteen inches [250 to 460 mm] in length. The general color of this fish is a reddish brown, with some golden tints—the sides being of a pink silvery luster."

This means that hake, which were common in Ireland, England, and France, started appearing in American waters around New York, Boston, and Cape Cod after Irish immigrants moved there. It was a new fish for America at the time!

See also

In Spanish: Merluza para niños