Walleye Pollock Identification Guide
Identify walleye pollock by its slender speckled body, tiny chin barbel, and protruding lower jaw.
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Key identification features
- Slender, streamlined body, silvery on the sides with a darker olive-brown to gray back
- Irregular dark speckles or blotches scattered along the upper sides
- Large eyes relative to head size
- Very small, sometimes barely visible chin barbel
- Three dorsal fins and two anal fins, with a protruding lower jaw
- Adults typically 12-20 inches, occasionally larger
Common look-alikes
- Pacific cod: deeper-bodied, with a thick, obvious chin barbel and heavier mottled patterning
- Pacific hake (whiting): no chin barbel at all and a more uniformly silvery, unspeckled body
- Herring: lacks the walleye pollock's three-part dorsal fin arrangement and has no chin barbel or protruding jaw
Where you'll see one
Walleye pollock form massive schools in the cold waters of the North Pacific, especially the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. They range from near-surface waters at night to several hundred meters deep during the day, generally over continental shelf and slope habitat rather than close to shore structure.
Frequently asked questions
How do I quickly separate walleye pollock from Pacific cod?
Look at the chin barbel and body depth - walleye pollock has a tiny, often hard-to-see barbel and a slimmer body, while Pacific cod has an obvious thick barbel and a deeper build.
What tells walleye pollock apart from Pacific hake?
Walleye pollock retains a small chin barbel and speckled back markings, while Pacific hake has no barbel at all and a plainer silvery body.