The hoki has a long, narrow body tapering toward the tip of the tail. While the first ventral and dorsal fin are separate, the remaining fins run continuously up to the tail point and cover more than two thirds of the fish. The dorsal colour is blue green and shimmers blue-silver. It also has large scales.
Hoki live in shoals and feed on small fish, such as sardines, crabs and cuttlefish. It is also known as blue grenadier, blue hake, whiptail, whiptail hake, and New Zealand whiting.
It can reach a length of up to 1.20 m, a weight of up to 6 kg and can live for a maximum of 25 years. During the spawning season, from late June to late September, the females lay several million eggs. In contrast to most deep sea fish the hoki grows very quickly and has already reached its sexual maturity at three or four years.
