Pacific cod inhabit both sides of the North Pacific, with its range along the West Pacific coast stretching from the Gulf of Anadyr in the north to the western shores of the Korean Peninsula and Qingdao in the Yellow Sea in the south. Stock structure across the species' range is a topic of ongoing research. Some differences among populations have been shown in peer-reviewed literature among those inhabitating the southern Kuril Islands and Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the coastal waters of Canada, while simultaneously other studies have found evidence of stock mixing and similarities across those same populations (Orlov et al. 2008; Stroganov et al. 2009; Stroganov and Orlov 2012).

Three distinct populations in the West Bering are broken out by the Russian authorities for the purposes of fishery management: East Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Komandor), Karaginsk, and Anadyr-Navarin. There may be some exchange of genetic materials among these populations due to the seasonal migrations that Pacific cod undertake, but the degree of this exchange is likely not significant due to the existence of physical and oceanographic barriers between the three regions inhabited by the populations (Lajus et al. 2019).

This profile covers the Karaginsk fishery management zone (61.02.01). This zone is separated from the West Bering zone to its northeast by the Shirshov Ridge, and from the the Petropavlovsk-Komandorskaya subzone to its south by the Kamchatsky Strait.