ABSTRACT
The family Merlucciidae comprises one genus and 13 species of benthopelagic fishes distributed on the continental shelves and upper slopes of the Atlantic, eastern Pacific and southwestern Indian Oceans, and off southern New Zealand (Nelson 1994). Two species are known to occur in the western central North Atlantic: Merluccius albidus, the offshore hake, and Merluccius bilinearis, the silver hake. A third species, Merluccius magnoculus, was described from specimens collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico (Ginsburg 1954); however, these specimens had similar meristic and morphometric characteristics as M. albidus and, thus, M. magnoculus was relegated to the synonymy of M. albidus (Karnella 1973). Merluccius albidus and M. bilinearis closely resemble each other, although they are distinguishable by the number of gill rakers on the first arch (811 vs. 16-20, respectively). Also, of the two species, only M. albidus is found in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea.
