Wreckfish is the firm, thick, snow-white flesh of a heavy deep-water rock cod of the genus Polyprion — most often the Atlantic wreckfish (Polyprion americanus) of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, and its Southern-Hemisphere near-twin the hāpuku (Polyprion oxygeneios) prized in New Zealand and southern Australia. A slow-growing predator that shelters around sunken wrecks, reefs and deep rocky drop-offs, it yields dense large-flaked loins that hold together on the grill and in a braise, meaty and clean-tasting rather than delicate.