For stock assessment purposes, Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) from the coastal and offshore regions off northern Norway is usually allocated to Norwegian coastal cod (NCC) or Northeast Arctic cod (NEAC) by internal morphological features of their otoliths. As this classification is subject to individual interpretation by otolith age readers, this study investigated an alternative objective approach for the separation of the two cod groups, using otolith shape analysis. Several hundred otolith samples from coastal fjord areas along northern Norway and from the Barents Sea were analysed by univariate shape descriptors and elliptical Fourier analysis (EFA). When combining uni- and multivariate descriptors and applying the otolith reader typing as reference, the classification score was 89% for NCC and 90% for NEAC. These results indicate that the internal morphology of the otoliths, evaluated by the age readers, is translated to a great extent to their outer morphology and that otoliths can be allocated to NCC and NEAC by their shapes with high certainty. When genetic typing data (Pan I marker) were used as reference, the classification scores were reduced to 83% for NCC and 76% for NEAC when combining uni- and multivariate descriptors and excluding heterozygotes. This implies that differences in otolith morphology cannot directly be linked to genetic structure. Differences in environmental conditions, however, seem to have a considerable influence on how otolith growth increments and consequently otolith shapes are formed. As the various fjord systems in Norway provide local habitats and as differences within the NCC with regard to genetic structure and life-history parameters had been found in earlier studies, variation of NCC otolith shapes between three coastal regions was also examined. The region classification scores for reader-typed NCC varied between 60% and 81%.
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