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🌊 Coalfish (saithe)
A hard-fighting member of the cod family, closely related to and often confused with pollack, and a popular target over wrecks, piers and rocky marks especially in northern UK waters.
Identification
Dark greenish-black to almost black back with a straighter lateral line than pollack (a key way to tell the two apart), and a less pronounced protruding lower jaw. Pale, near-white belly.
UK habitat
More common in the north and west of the UK, particularly Scotland, than further south, found over reefs, wrecks and around harbour walls and piers, often in noticeably deeper or colder water than pollack prefers.