Merlangius merlangus, commonly known as whiting or merling, is an important food fish in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean and the northern Mediterranean, western Baltic, and Black Sea.

The colour may be yellowish-brown, greenish or dark blue, the flanks yellowish grey or white and the belly silvery.

[3] Until the late 20th century, whiting was a cheap fish, regarded as food for the poor or for pets.

Several species of the drum, or croaker, family (Sciaenidae) are also called whiting, among them the northern kingfish (Menticirrhus saxatilis).

These include the cod worm (Lernaeocera branchialis), a copepod crustacean that clings to the gills or the fish and metamorphoses into a plump, sinusoidal, wormlike body, with a coiled mass of egg strings at the rear.