Lingcod spawning season - spread the word!

[mattcass]

It's lingcod spawning season folks! Tell your friends! On both a dive last weekend at Kelvin Grove and a dive yesterday at Porteau Cove I have encountered a lingcod guarding an egg mass.

At Porteau Cove, I was with a group of people and none of them knew it was lingcod spawning season. Subsequently, when we encountered a lingcod guarding a rather obvious egg mass, one of the members of the group didn't know it was an egg mass and nearly came to a rest on the egg mass - almost crushing it. Gah! I talked with some other people on shore and there was a similar level of awareness.

This is what an egg mass looks like:

It will likely be guarded by a lingcod. So if you encounter an overly 'friendly' lingcod, it's not trying to be your friend, it's telling you to get lost!

For more information check out the DFO site:

DFO Pacific Region | Science and Research | Aquatic Species | Groundfish Programs | Lingcod

You can even volunteer your time and help with an egg mass survey via the Vancouver Aquarium:

Lingcod Egg Mass Survey | vanaqua.org

(there is a rockfish survey too! But not occurring right now Rockfish Abundance Survey | vanaqua.org)

Happy diving!

 

[ESQ]

Thanks. I saw an eggmass today at Porteau near the Grant Hall.

 

[beekeeper5]

Where you part of the UBC dive? If so, then I think you were the person who told us that they were lingcod eggs. My buddy and I thought they were styrofoam or some sort of trash. Good thing we didn't pick it up. We did pick up a large (10x10 ft at least) plastic sheet floating on our surface swim back though.

 

[ESQ]

No, but I know those guys. I saw them under a flat plate near the wreck.

 

[StuartT]

For anyone who hasn't seen ling cod eggs they do look like big chunks of styrofoam from a whitish color when fresh changing to yellowish or grey when dying off after hatching from what I remember. It is also only the males who guard the eggs from what I've been told. They can be quite aggresive but not as aggresive as a cabezon guarding eggs. They are fortunately not as common at our local howe sound sites. I did get attacked by one at the Edmonds underwater park though.

 

[Wookie]

Sweet. Is a Lingcod a grouper of some sort? Looks like it, but I didn't know any grouper were egg layers, all the ones I know are broadcast spawners.

 

[TheWetRookie]

Don't know is they are groupers, I just know they can get big.

 

[MarkH]

Sweet. Is a Lingcod a grouper of some sort? Looks like it, but I didn't know any grouper were egg layers, all the ones I know are broadcast spawners.

They're greenlings (family: Hexagrammidae). As far as I know, this family only lives in the North Pacific. I don't think there are any tropical versions.

 

[vjanelle]

Saw one at Kelvin too in some cracks.

 

[mustang_5l]

Found an egg mass at Henderson PT on the island.