What Is Pollock Fish?

There are three kinds of fish that are all commonly referred to as “pollock.” Two are species native to the North Atlantic and members of the family Gadidae and genus Pollachius. The first, Pollachius pollachius, is usually called pollock in North America as well as the United Kingdom, while the second, Pollachius virens, is more often called coley in the UK, a derivative of the older name for that fish, coalfish.

The third fish frequently called pollock is also a member of the family Gadidae, but belongs to a separate genus, Gadus. So, if we think of the first two kinds of pollock as siblings, this third one is like their cousin. The Gadus chalcogrammus, as this type of fish is formally known, spawns in the Bering Sea in the late winter and early spring and makes up a large share of the haul taken in by commercial fisherman in the Gulf of Alaska.

In the United States, if someone says pollock, they likely mean Pollachius pollachius, or Atlantic pollock. Although Alaskan pollock, as Gadus chalcogrammus is known, tends to get a modifier before its name, it’s by far the most readily available of the three types.

Both Atlantic and Alaskan pollock look quite similar from the outside, and though their flavor is strong for whitefish, it’s still decidedly on the mild end of the fish flavor spectrum. Pollock makes lovely, soft, flakey fillets. It’s also often used as imitation crab meat.

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