June 17, 2016 Ogden Point breakwater video

[MarkH]

 

[Agamemnon]

Awesome - I'm pretty sure that is a juvenile Bocaccio Rockfish at 4:15! That increases the list of rockfish I know of at Ogden to 13! (Black, Bocaccio, Canary, China, Copper, Puget Sound, Quillback, Silver Grey, Tiger, Vermillion, Widow, Yelloweye, Yellowtail). That rock pile is the best nursery for rockfish and I've still yet to have heard of another site with this many different species!

 

[Seya]

Sweet thanks for the video

 

[MarkH]

Awesome - I'm pretty sure that is a juvenile Bocaccio Rockfish at 4:15! That increases the list of rockfish I know of at Ogden to 13! (Black, Bocaccio, Canary, China, Copper, Puget Sound, Quillback, Silver Grey, Tiger, Vermillion, Widow, Yelloweye, Yellowtail). That rock pile is the best nursery for rockfish and I've still yet to have heard of another site with this many different species!

I agree. I don't think there's another site in B.C. where I've heard of this many rockfish species. I think brown is the only common local species I've never seen there. The strange rockfish looked to me like a skinny silver grey, but it was a different colour (not the pale grey/green/yellow mix of a silver grey). Years ago, I saw a group of orange-coloured rockfish out at the end of the breakwater in the shallows that I thought might be Bocaccio. There are some pictures of them on the page:index. They might have been a different colour phase (mating?) of silver grey or widow.

 

[Agamemnon]

I just checked my copy of "Rockfishes, Thornyheads, and Scorpionfishes of the Northeast Pacific" by J. Bulter, M. Love and T. Laidig and they have a photo of a juvenile Bocaccio which looks quite similar - they are skinny and have the long lower jaw and lip. None of the others quite look the same, so I'm pretty sure this is a Bocaccio. The orange fish from your older shots also look like young Bocaccio. But, there's another Rockfish called a Chillipepper, which is similar and would be my second choice. Of course, I've never seen either in person, so this info is just from the book. Apparently the Silver Grey can be tan so might be the orangish fish in your older shots but would be a distant 3rd place in my guess ranking.

The breakwater must capture all the drifting planktonic young and allow them to hide and grow. There used to be some very large vermillion at the end of the breakwater but i guess these were caught by fishing activities. I would imagine that the young can develop to adults at the breakwater and, like the large vermillions, also reproduce at the breakwater, so it seems like an ideal spot for a no-take marine protected area. I've seen very pregnant Tiger rockfish, so i know they breed at the breakwater and there are a few larger sub-adult Yelloweye's also, so it's definitely a great nursery. I imagine that China rockfish drifted in as plankton also. Anyway, i'm looking forward to my next dive and hopefully catch a glimpse of this Bocaccio, which apparently are considered threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

Thanks as always for your awesome videos and photos!!