The general body colour is brownish-grey but the inside of the mouth, the orbits round the eyes, the gill cavities and the fins are dark brownish black.

[3] The roundnose grenadier is a batch spawner [3] and is believed to migrate to the vicinity of Iceland to spawn in late summer or autumn.

The former USSR, Poland, and the German Democratic Republic were the main countries involved, sending factory ships to undertake midwater trawls in the Atlantic Ocean.

More recently, French and Spanish vessels have predominated and the total annual catch has been under 20,000 tonnes (22,000 short tons) in most years since 1980.

[4] In 2010 in the United Kingdom, the roundnose grenadier was listed as a "UK Priority Species" for conservation purposes on the grounds that it is a long-lived fish taking many years to mature and that numbers were declining.