Halibut and Haddock – What is the difference between halibut and haddock?
Here are the differences between Halibut and Haddock:
From a food perspective:
Halbut has a firm texture and has a clean taste and requires little seasoning. While Haddock has a clean white flesh its less firm than Halibut. Fresh haddock will be firm and fillets will be translucent. Older fillets will turn chalky. Halibut fish are prepared for food mostly by boiling, deep-frying, or grilling. Smoking is more difficult with halibut meat than Haddock. Haddock is more widely distributed and a super popular food fish. It is often used in Fish and Chips. Haddock is prepared for food in many ways including smoking, drying, and some canning. (it does not salt well though)
Fish type.
Halibut is a flat fish. They are actually the largest flat fish and average 24-30 lbs (I caught some huge ones around Alaska). Haddock is gray-black on the top side with an off-white underbelly and have very small scales invisible to the naked eye embedded in their skin. While Haddock is easily recognized by a black lateral line running along its white side and a distinctive dark blotch above the pectoral fin. Haddock is a Cod fish. It has three dorsal fins and two anal fins.
Location:
Halibut was in both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans but the Atlantic Haddock was pretty much fished out and almost all Halibut distributed now is from the Pacific Ocean while Haddock is mainly in the North Atlantic and is heavily commerically fished.
Depths:
Halibut live at depths ranging from a few feet to hundreds of feet. They spend most most of their time near the bottom.
Haddock can be found from depths of 130 to 900 ft.
Predators.
Haddocks predators are the salmon shark, sea lions, and killer whales.
Food Sources:
Halibut feeds on pretty much any animal that could fit into their mouths including crabs, salmon, hermit crabs, cod, pollock, herring, and flounder.
While Haddock feeds primarily on smaller invertebrates.