Man-Sized Monster Cod Caught in Iceland, May Be the Largest Ever Hooked in North Atlantic [Look]

A humongous cod weighing a whopping 112lbs (50kg) and at almost 6 feet (1.85m) has been caught by a fisherman off the coast of Iceland. The fish landed in a fish market in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, where fishmonger Nathan Godley snapped it for almost $215 (£165) and displayed it in his store.

Cod is usually found in the cold water of the North Atlantic, where they generally remain near the seafloor. This fish is not only valued for its edible flesh but also for the oil in its liver.

(Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
A freshly-caught cod lies in a fishing net on board the fishing boat of veteran fishermen Reinhard Lay and Klaus Raack on August 13, 2010 in the Baltic Sea near Poel Island, Germany.

Record-Breaking Monster Cod

The fish had been caught at a depth of 420 feet (128m) off the coast of Iceland and was kept fresh on the boat before it was unloaded at Grimsby Fish Market on Monday, April 4, where it attracted a huge crowd, MailOnline reported.

Godley first heard of the cod last Saturday when a fish salesman gave him an advanced call about a 'head-turning fish coming to the market and whether he was interested in buying it. After hearing that, Godley immediately went to the location and bought the record-breaking monster cod.

He said that he could not find a bigger one when he looked it up on the internet and that somebody even edited the information in Wikipedia that now says a cod could grow up to 50kg from previously 40kg.

The fish was laid in front of buyers, where it was auctioned. The salesman would shout a price and the highest bid would win. Godley said he was attracted by the freshness of the fish but mainly by its size because it was enormous and about ten times as big as an ordinary cod.

He even posed for a photo beside it and they were almost of the same length.

"It's about ten times as big as usual cod," Godley said, per The Sun. "Never in my life have I bought a fish so large."

He displayed the fish in his shop window and let his customers take photos of it before selling off portions to the buyers. According to him, they got 17 kilos of best fillet off it and it was a hit until Wednesday.

He added that only one species during the fresh fish auction they got that was anywhere near the size of the cod, and that was a halibut. Godley said he brought the cod back to his shop in Grimsby, where he displayed it and sold off fillets to the locals.

Different Species of Cods in the World

According to Britannica, cod is any of the four species of the family Gadidae. The term cod historically refers to the cold-water Atlantic cod ( Gadus morhua) found on both sides of the North Atlantic. In modern-day, cod refers to all members of the genus Gadus.

This fish is recognizable by its dark spots, three dorsal fins, two anal fins, and a chin barbel whose color could carry from greenish or grayish to brown or black, although some may also come in red. They usually weigh 25lbs (11.5kg) and can reach up to 6ft (1.8m) and feed on other fishes and invertebrates.

Meanwhile, tara is a North Pacific (G. macrocephalus) species of cod that looks similar to the Atlantic cod and is commonly found in the northeastern and northwestern parts of the Pacific Ocean. Japanese fishermen catch this cod both for food and their liver oil. It is smaller than the Atlantic cod, measuring only 30in (75cm).

It is the same size as the Greenland cod (G. ogac), which is commonly seen in the Baffin Bay and Hudson Bay and on the Labrador coast and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

Lastly, there is the Alaska pollock (G. chalcogrammus) or also known as walleye pollock, which lives at the bottom of the sea and rises only to the surface to hunt for krill and other fishes. These fishes inhabit the continental shelf regions in North Pacific and are most heavily concentrated in the Bering Sea. It is much larger than the two previous species that can grow up to 36in (91cm) and weigh up to 8.6lbs (3.9kg).

Check out more news and information on Fish in Science Times.