The Cod is one of our best-known offshore native fish. It is commonly associated with our traditional 'fish and chips'. There used be so many of these fish swimming in our waters, but now there are so few due to over fishing.

Despite the huge decrease of numbers, Cod are still very clever in camouflaging themselves. They can change the colour of their bodies depending where they live. Cod that live in shallow sandy water are a pale yellow colour and those that live around seaweed change to a dull green colour. Also Cod that spend a lot of time near rocks change to a rusty red colour and Cod that live in the deep sea are a pale grey colour.

The Cod has a head that looks over-large for its body size and it also looks like it has quite a large mouth because its top jaw overhangs its bottom jaw. It has a fleshy finger-looking organ hanging from its chin. This organ is called the ‘barbel’ and  is used to search for food. Cod can eat an amazing amount of food and  can weigh up to ninety kilogrammes. They like to eat small crustaceans called ‘copepods’ which are part of zooplankton.