The Red Irish Lord (Hemilepidotus hemilepidotus; up to 51 cm) is a fish of incredibly stunning diversity of colour. Right down to its flecked, bulging eyes, this ambush predator is a master of camouflage.
But how can you be camouflaged when you’re a fish of insane red and/or orange colouring? When you live in the rich, cold waters of the Northeast Pacific where Nature has doled out colour so liberally, you fade into the background even when so vibrantly coloured.
They are a favourite species for we underwater photographers since, as ambush hunters, they remain still even when annoying divers are flashing lights in their eyes or when a crab is sitting on their heads (see below).
The diversity of colour in this species is awe-inspiring. See below for examples of the diversity of colour and pattern and their ability to camouflage. You will even see that there are crabs that walk on their heads. I have a whole blog entitled “Crabs Making Bad Choices” dedicated to that at this link.
I hope that your sense of wonder is further stimulated in realizing that the Red Irish Lords are able to change even the colour of the flecks in their eyes to match their surroundings!
The remarkable eyes of the Red Irish Lord. The flecks you see are corneal chromatophores which can change colour to add the to species’ ability to camouflage.
See too how Red Irish Lords are among the fish who guard their fertilized eggs.
Both male and female Red Irish Lords guard the eggs. More information in my blog at this link.
A Red Irish Lord who is hoping the Sharpnose Crab inches down just a bit further so that s/he can feed (and that the annoying photographer would go away!). See my blog “Crabs Making Bad Choices” for more photos of such interactions at this link.
Another Red Irish Lord and a mature male Sharpnose Crab making bad choices.
Slide show and gallery of photos below give a further sense of the diversity of colour and camouflage in this species.
ID photo of “Dusty” the grey whale by Christie McMillan. See the Marine Education and Research Society blog for many more photos and detail on Dusty (link below).
Two more unique whale events have been documented in the ocean corridor between Port McNeill, Sointula and Alert Bay (Northern Vancouver Island, B.C.,Canada).
Following the remarkable “visit” of offshore* killer whales at the end of March, on May 16th what is likely the largest group of marine mammal-eating** killer whales ever documented swam past our communities.
It is possible that there were up to 37 different animals in this group. These killer whales, as hunters of marine mammal prey, need to have a culture of stealth and unpredictability and therefore usually travel in small groups. It should be noted that the work of the Orca Lab documented this extraordinary encounter (both visually and acoustically) and that DFO expertise determined the IDs of the whales. (Click here for OrcaLab’s blog on the encounter).
Then, this last week, we had frequent sightings of a little grey whale in front of our communities. Grey whales are already a rarity in our specific area but what makes this whale really unique is that s/he is potentially the first grey whale known to become a summer “resident” here.
Jared Towers and Christie McMillan (of the Marine Education and Research Society /MERS) confirmed that this is the same grey whale that they kept an eye on last year. From June to early October 2010, the whale was more often around Cormorant Island and the east end of Malcolm Island and became known as “Dusty” and “LGW” (Little Grey Whale). Dusty is relatively easy to identify as an individual because its tail bears the evidence of having survived an attack by mammal-eating killer whales and because there are distinct markings on its flanks including the larger white spot seen in the image above.
This May 31st, Christie and Jared confirmed that Dusty had returned to the area and was the whale that many of us in Port McNeill, Sointula and Alert Bay had the great privilege of seeing while it fed near our shores. (Click here for Jared and Christie’s MERS blog with far more detail on Dusty and includes pictures).
If we are indeed so lucky that Dusty is able to “make a living” by feeding here, we’ll be able to whale watch from land with some predictability. We will also need to be good marine neighbours, since Dusty has been sighted very near the harbours of our communities and can surface very unexpectedly.
* Offshore killer whales are most often near the continental shelf and their diet has been confirmed to include sharks. Click here for a previous “The Marine Detective” blog on the offshore killer whales sighted at the end of March, 2011.
** The mammal-eating killer whales are known as “transients” and “Bigg’s killer whales”. The latter name is a recent move to honour the late Dr. Michael Bigg, father of killer whale research. Recent research has found these to be the most genetically divergent type of killer whale and they may be recognized as a different species.
Record of possible sightings of Dusty as of June 7th.
June 7 – Port McNeill
June 8 – Alert Bay (Source – MERS, confirmed as Dusty)
June 9 – Campbell River. (Source – Susan MacKay, confirmed )
June 11 – Campbell River seen heading north (Source – via Susan MacKay)
June 12 – passing by the Orca Lab, Blackfish Sound (Source Orca Lab; ID photos to come)
June 8th is World Oceans Day (originating from the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit and recognized by the United Nations since 2008).
Mature male fish eating( (“resident”) killer whale – “Skeena” (A13; born 1978; missing 2010). Photo – Hildering.
In reflecting on what I can best share with you to honour Oceans Day and make clear the human dependence and impact on the oceans, I have decided that no one has made these points more solidly and eloquently than fellow Canadian, James Cameron. He is a lifelong activist for marine conservation who, among many other achievements, is the award-winning director of “Titanic” and “Avatar”.
Below, please read, and heed, the text from his 1998 acceptance speech for the SeaKeeper Award.
The message is more important and urgent – than ever.
View towards Alert Bay, Northern Vancouver Island. Photo – Hildering
James Camerson:
“Every living soul on earth, no matter how far inland they live or how much they may hate eating fish, is utterly dependent on the divine saltwater soup of the ocean. The ocean is the engine that drives our weather and moderates our climate. The phytoplankton in the seas create the majority of the oxygen we breathe. These microscopic plants also form the bottom of a vast food chain from which we harvest a large portion of our food.
As our population increases, and arable land remains finite, we will look to the oceans more and more for our survival. Thus, our destiny as a species is interlocked with the destiny of the sea. If the seas become sick, we become sick. If they die, we die. Subconsciously we think the sea will always be there for us.
Sunset Port McNeill. Photo – Hildering.
Right now, all over the world, coral reefs are threatened, and 40-mile-long drift nets cut huge, sterile swaths through the open ocean. Biologists estimate that over one hundred million undiscovered species remain to be identified in the oceans. We will kill half of these before, we have even had a chance to give them names.
Life began in the sea over three billion years ago. Our first upright walking ancestors appeared a mere four million years ago, and human civilization is less than ten thousand years old. If the natural history of life on earth could be viewed as a single Great Year, all of human recorded history inhabits the last couple of seconds of the last minute before midnight at the end of that year. And yet, in those last seconds, that eyeblink, we have multiplied exponentially, and our impact on the natural world has increased logarithmically.
It took the entire history of humankind to produce a global population of a billion people by the year 1800. By 1930, in just over a century, it had doubled to two billion. In another fifty years, it had doubled again to four. Now, at close to 6 billion, we are likely to double again in less than thirty years. picture it, 12 billion human souls, human mouths, crying out for food, struggling to survive, competing for resources, choking in a poisoned and depleted world, and all within the lifetime of our children.
Sunset off the coast of Northern Vancouver Island. Photo – Hildering.
We are alive now, and doing those works for which we will be remembered, at the most critical instant in the history of the Earth. Millions of years of natural evolution are focusing down to a few decades during which the game will be won or lost. And like it or not, we are the players in that game.
This is both a great honor, and a terrifying responsibility- As leaders, as decision-makers, as influencer’s of public opinion, we must do our best to preserve and restore the oceans. Humankind has, unwittingly, assumed the role of executioner of our own planet’s life force. But we can also be saviors, if we choose, and if we are willing to make the sacrifices necessary . . .
Sunrise Port McNeill – looking toward Haddington Island and Sointula. Photo – Hildering.
There is no one here who would not do the very best for their children – the best schools, the best food, the best doctors. Think of the ocean as the ultimate trust fund for your children, a living and life-giving fund. A healthy ocean is the best gift you can give them . . . l ask everyone. . . to assume a leadership role in guarding and restoring the oceans in all ways, and as a life philosophy.”
When we saw Jigger in 2009, we noted the barnacle growing on the right top of her dorsal fin. Such barnacles are a distinct species only found on Humpback Whales. The Humpback Whale Barnacle is Coronula diadema (to 5 cm tall and 6 cm wide.
Then, when we saw Jigger in August of 2010, we noted that her dorsal fin looked very different. My research partner from the Marine Education and Research Society, Christie McMillan, and I were worried that it might be an injury so we tried to get a better photo of the dorsal fin.
Here’s what the dorsal fin looked like from behind (photo taken with a telephoto lens and cropped) When I had this perspective, I thought that what we were looking at might be seaweed growing on the Humpback Whale Barnacle we had seen the year before (note that the barnacles often do fall off between years).
But, it didn’t quite look like seaweed. With patience and good camera lenses, we got a better look.
What on Earth?! They’re gooseneck barnacles growing on the Humpback Whale Barnacle!
Gooseneck barnacles are an order of barnacles that are attached to a hard surface by a long stalk that looks like a goose’s neck. They depend on the motion of the water to feed on plankton as they do not have the “foot” (cirri) that rakes in plankton in many other barnacle species.
That’s when I learned that there is a species of gooseneck barnacle that, in the North Pacific Ocean, most often grows on the Humpback Whale Barnacle!! The species is the Humpback Whale Gooseneck Barnacle, also known as the Rabbit-eared Whale Barnacle (Conchoderma auritum (to 11 cm long).
This is the kind of discovery that causes wonder and euphoria in my world.
To be able to identify a Humpback as an individual is already something of great scientific and educational value.
That this attention to an individual whale leads me to learn that there is a species of gooseneck barnacle that grows almost exclusively on a species of barnacle that only grows on Humpback Whales = sheer wonder.
I can’t wait to find out what else the Humpbacks are going to teach me!
Image from Fertl, Dagmar & Newman, William. (2018). Barnacles.
Update: January 2022. Oh and by the way, when Jigger returned to the feeding grounds around northeastern Vancouver Island the next year, she did not have the two barnacle species on her dorsal fin. But she did have . . . a calf. The calf is “Quartz” and has returned to northeast Vancouver Island every year from 2011 to 2021. From our Marine Education and Research post from January 2022: There are two species here on Dapple’s chin and these barnacle species are very often also on the tips of Humpback Whales’ tails.
1) The big, round barnacles are “Humpback Whale Barnacles” (Coronula diadema to 5 cm tall and 6 cm wide) and they ONLY grow on Humpbacks. When they fall off, they leave those round white marks. The barnacles that grow on Grey Whales are a different species that ONLY grow on Grey Whales (Cryptolepas rhachianecti).
2) Growing atop the Humpback Whale Barnacles are “Humpback Whale Gooseneck Barnacles” (Conchoderma auritum to 11 cm long) aka “The Rabbit-Eared Gooseneck Barnacle” which, in the North Pacific Ocean, MOST OFTEN ONLY GROW ON TOP of Humpback Whale Barnacles! There can be up to 50 Humpback Whale Gooseneck Barnacles on one Humpback Whale Barnacle and each gooseneck barnacle is usually oriented with the opening facing the direction the whale swims allowing for better feeding on plankton. (Source: EFauna BC). With that long, fleshy “neck” it certainly is clear why they are called GOOSENECK barnacles.
That’s two layers of specificity made all the more thought-provoking when you realize that barnacles start off as plankton drifting in the ocean, attach to the correct surface, and then grow a shell. The amount and position of these barnacle species can change quickly. For example, there were no Humpback Whale Gooseneck Barnacles to be seen on Dapple’s chin on August 18th but there they are by September 25th. Thereby, barnacles often cannot help identify individual Humpbacks between years but . . those scars from Humpback Whale Barnacles DO persist.
Please know that barnacles are NOT thought to be a hinderance to the whales. It is believed that there’s symbiosis. The barnacle species have good positioning to feed on plankton and the Humpback Whale and Grey Whale Barnacles are believed to offer defence to these slower moving big baleen whales. Grey Whales and Humpback Whales are built for fight rather than flight from mammal-hunting Orca (Bigg’s Killer Whales) and will posture, trumpet and lash out. The barnacles are likely also of use when the males fight for females in the breeding grounds. Hey, when you don’t have teeth, it helps to have something similar to brass knuckles.
More detail
From E-FAUNA BC: ELECTRONIC ATLAS OF THE WILDLIFE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA “Conchoderma auritum is most often found attached to the shells of Coronula on the humpback whale; sometimes more than fifty are attached to one shell. “Rarely a specimen is found attached to the base of the teeth of an old sperm whale” (Sheffer, 1939). Gordon C. Pike reports finding specimens of C. auritumon sperm and fin whales taken in British Columbia. In each case the barnacles were associated with a deformation or an apathological condition of the jaws, baleen, or teeth. Each barnacle is usually oriented with the opening facing in the direction the whale swims. The food-laden water passes through the opening and over the feeding appendages, then out through the two “ears” which have tubular openings.”
From the Marine Species Identification Portal: Species is “attached to the whale barnacle Coronula diadema and sometimes Coronula reginae. It seems to be a rule that no Coronula is without a Conchoderma. Whether this is a form of symbiosis has been discussed by Broch (1924b). Specimens from northern waters have been taken from humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae ) or from teeth of bottle-nosed whales (Hyperodon spp.). In the Antarctic C. auritum has also been found on baleen plates of whales and on their tails. In tropical and subtropical parts of the oceans it can also be found attached to ships’ hulls and other floating objects, to slow moving fishes or to the tail of a large eel, but never on soft objects.” From Mike Horan (pers. com January 2022) “I have also seen the stalked barnacle [Conchoderma auritum] on Bottlenosed Dolphins during the die off of 1987 in New Jersey.”
“Individual whales have been known to collect up to 450 kilograms of barnacles. That’s an enormous mass, but relative to a 30-tonne humpback, it would weigh only about as much as an extra layer of clothes. And as far as scientists can tell, the hangers-on don’t particularly bother a healthy whale. They may slightly increase drag as the whale swims, but they may also be helpful as a set of brass knuckles when adult males battle each other over the chance to mate [and when dealing with mammal-hunting Bigg’s Killer Whales]
Here’s what we don’t know about whale barnacles, at least with any certainty: just about everything else. Like, how do their larvae, no bigger than a grain of salt, find a migratory whale to grab onto in the first place? Once they locate one, how do they navigate around its gargantuan body—hundreds of thousands of times larger than theirs—to find their permanent homestead? “It just seems preposterous,” says John Zardus, a marine biologist at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. He specializes in studying barnacles that live on other living things.
Studying those symbiotic barnacles that live on sea turtles, dolphins, crabs, and other marine animals has given Zardus some idea of how whale barnacles might hack it. Adults mate on the whale, but rather than take their chances during their host’s oceanic migrations, they likely wait to release their larvae until the whales gather in coastal areas to breed. The larvae then go through several developmental stages, which can take up to two weeks, before they’re ready to settle. “It’s not like the larva is being released from a whale and it’s going to [immediately] attach to the whale next door,” Zardus says.
When a larva is ready, a chemical signal is most likely what tips it off that it’s in the presence of whale skin. This could be a pheromone emitted by already settled adult barnacles—a strategy commonly used by other barnacle species—or it could be some molecule that wafts off the surface of the skin itself. If other barnacles are any indication, the larva probably reaches out with its sensitive antennules to familiarize itself with the epidermis. It squeezes a drop of sticky polymer out of one antennule to adhere itself temporarily, then sticks down a second antennule and releases the first one, swinging it over to another spot. By repeating this process, a larva “ends up walking around on the surface, leaving little gluey footprints,” says Zardus. “These larvae can possibly crawl all over the host until they find the right location where they want to be.”
Where they want to be is generally on the whale’s forehead, its tail, or the leading edges of its flippers. Those are the places on a whale’s body that water flows over most efficiently. That gives the barnacle a front-row seat when the whale swims through a cloud of plankton, which the barnacle also gets to eat. When the larva finds a good place to settle down, it exudes a stronger glue onto the skin and cements itself for the rest of its life, which may last about one to three years.
Much of this is informed speculation, Zardus stresses, because living whale barnacles and their larvae are extremely hard to come by. Collecting them from a living whale is out of the question, since it would require cutting into the whale’s flesh. A dead whale that washes up has to be discovered before its barnacles die of hunger, desiccation, or predation . . ..
Other than whale barnacles, nothing else reliably recorded the month-to-month movements of ancient whales, says Taylor. Bone tissue doesn’t care about the chemistry of the water it grew in; baleen does, but it’s hardly ever fossilized. But a well-preserved whale barnacle is the perfect time-traveling tracking device. “We won’t be able to tell you, ‘This whale hung a left at Malibu,’” says Taylor, “but [we can] get a general sense of where animals might have been moving.” . . .
Jigger bulking up before the migration, near Sayward in British Columbia, in November 2021.
Update to the April/May information below: June 16, 2011.
From Peter Olesiuk, DFO – “I have not heard anything from Kaouk for over 2 days now, and I suspect his tag may have been moulted. In our Steller studies the tags tended to fall off in July-August. However, I checked the literature and the moult is 1-1/2 months earlier in juveniles, typically starting on 21 June. In my experience, tags glued to the pelage [fur] tend to fall off when the hair follicles weaken early in or just before the actual moult.”
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A picture is definitely worth a thousand words. See below for April 14th and May 8th images of Kaouk the Steller sea lion healthy, fat, WILD and with his peers!!
This photos and information has been provided by lighthouse keeper Jerry Etzkorn, via DFO and the Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre (you can follow MMR on Facebook at this link).
Kaouk, is the male Steller sea lion that walked into the Port Alice trailer park on December 16th and was flown to the Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre. He inspired the students of Port Alice to write a children’s book and was released back into the wild on March 17th from southwestern Vancouver Island.
For background information on Kaouk, including how you can follow him via satellite tag, click this linkfor a previous blog posting.
Click the images to see them at a larger size.
Another happy Kaouk update from May 8th, 2011. Thank you Peter Olesiuk.
Photo taken on April 14, 2011 by Carmanah lighthouse keeper Jerry Etzkorn. He reports “He is certainty active and definitely accepted and tuned in to the other sea lions.”
Mature male offshore killer whale photographed on March 27, 2011 for research purposes by J. Hildering (telephoto lens). Note ragged edge to the dorsal fin – damage from sharks?
Many Port McNeill (N. Vancouver Island, BC) residents were whale watching on the evening of March 30th and they didn’t have to leave their homes to do so!
A group of 12 offshore killer whales was extremely active right in front of the community; even repeatedly spyhopping (popping their heads out of the water). To have whales this visible near your home is a great gift but, all the more remarkable is that these were very mysterious, threatened whales.
“Offshores” are a distinct type of killer whale that does not mate with the killer whales that eat marine mammals (“transients”) nor with those that feed on fish, mostly salmon (“residents”).
About 300 individual northeastern Pacific offshores have been photographed but studying them is usually very difficult. As their name suggests, they are most often near the continental shelf and they are very wide-ranging. Offshores weren’t even identified till 1979 and weren’t confirmed to be a distinct population until 1989.
So little is known about them. Only very recently did the research of Dr. John Fordet al illuminate what the whales might be doing around the continental shelf and why their teeth are worn down so much more than the teeth of other killer whales. DNA analysis of prey samples confirmed that the diet of offshores includes Pacific sleeper sharks (4m+), a species with very abrasive skin that are found around the continental shelf. In some cases the offshore killer whales’ teeth are so worn down by the the sharks’ skin that it is believed they become dependent on the help of other offshore killer whales to catch and eat this prey. The offshores’ scarred bodies served as a further hint that they may do battle with sharks.
Their diet is believed to also include other shark species (e.g. salmon sharks, blue sharks) and halibut.
Inshore sightings of these whales provide a very unique opportunity to learn more about them e.g. what they are eating when inshore and why they are so full of toxins. It is puzzling that offshores killer whales appear to becoming inshore more often and this may be due to a shift in diet or range in their prey.
Luckily one of the world’s leading killer whale researchers, Graeme Ellis of the Pacific Biological Station, was able to join the offshores in front of Port McNeill for this research opportunity. He was alerted to their presence by the superstars at the Orca Lab (Leah Robinson and Marie Fournier) who first heard these whales’ unique vocals in the Robson Bight area on March 25th.
I too was extraordinarily privileged to be able to contribute some ID photographs from sightings on March 27th and . . . I don’t think I’ll ever quite be the same after watching these mystery whales surfing in 3’ waves.
It all just goes to show that you never know who you’ll meet on Northern Vancouver Island!
[Great thanks to residents of Port McNeill and Angela Smith of Ocean Rose Adventures for helping get photos of a lone male offshore killer whale in Port McNeill Bay on March 27].
For more information on offshore killer whales see:
January 2011 Vancouver Sun article “Orca off B.C.’s coast love the taste of shark – but they’re wearing their teeth flat on the abrasive skin of the sleeper shark, study says”( reporting on Ford et al’s research)
[Updates up to April 6th provided below. For more recent updates – including a photo of Kaouk hauled out with other wild Steller sea lions, click here.
Kaouk bounding unhesitatingly back into the wild. Where is he now? See links below for links to the Vancouver Aquarium announcement and track data. Photo is a video grab by Peter Olesiuk (DFO)
Kaouk was released back into the wild on March 17th, from Toquart Bay on southwestern Vancouver Island (where the herring are bountiful) and . . . now you can follow his progress!
Kaouk, is the male Steller sea lion that walked into the Port Alice trailer park on December 16th and was flown to the Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre. He inspired the students of Port Alice to write a children’s book and will no doubt continue to be a charismatic marine ambassador to we humans; helping us understand his species, when to help wild animals, ad when to leave them be.
For the Vancouver Aquarium’s announcement of his release click here.
The announcement includes the link to where you can follow him via a satellite tag that was attached to Kaouk’s fur with epoxy and will fall off when he moults.
Click herefor the direct link to the tracking data.
Click here for a previous blog posting giving background on Kaouk.
And click here for a 1-minute video of his enthusiastic return to the wild, made available by Peter Olesiuk (DFO).
Kaouks wanderings to the morning of April 6, 2011. He has been exploring and hauling out a lot. See text for update.
Update April 6th, 2011.
See the image below – Kaouk has been exploring Barkley Sound and hauling out on a regular basis over the last 10 days, first at Mara Rocks (the largest and only year-round Steller haulout in Barkley Sound – see previous update) and more recently at Wouwer Island (a winter haulout occupied by Steller and California sea lions mainly outside of the May-August breeding season). He has been frequenting areas knowing to be good herring spawn areas, and areas known to have concentrations of sardines). Go Kaouk go – eat lots! Scientist Peter Olesiuk of DFO reports that he needs to eat 15-20 kg per day, which is apparently a challenge. Scientist Peter Olesiuk of DFO reports that about 46% of sea lions don’t make it through their first year.
Click to enlarge. Mara Rock - the Steller sea lion haul out that Kaouk has been frequenting! Image provided by Peter Olesiuk (DFO).
Update March 30th, 2011
Kaouk is with his own kind!
Since the evening of March 25th, he has been hauling out and foraging around this haulout on Mara Rock. Peter Olesiuk of DFO kindly shared that Mara Rock is the largest Steller sea lion haulout in Barkley Sound and that it is the only site that is occupied year-round (600+ animals, including lots of juveniles like Kaouk, at this time of year). Images below provided by Peter Olesiuk show the Mara Rock haulout and, in the satellite tracking image, Mara Rock is in the bottom left corner (note how consistently he has been at this site). Most of his dives are reported to be between 20 to 50 m with a few in the 50 to 100 m range.
Click to enlarge. Satellite image from AM of March 30th. Note the concentrated activity in the bottom left of the image. This is Mara Rock - a large Steller sea lion haulout!!!
Update March 19th: If you have been looking at the satellite data for Kaouk, please note that the locations are only updated once a day (data is not real-time) and that locations are not very “refined”. The map below (provided via Marine Mammal Rescue) gives a far more accurate look at Kaouk’s adventures. It looks like he hasn’t even come ashore in his first days in the wild! He has been actively diving and hopefully filling himself up with herring.
Kaouk - March 17th to +/- 09:00 March 19th. Image via Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue.
The Marine Detective in a bull kelp forest. Photo: G. Miller
Due to weather and other circumstances, I did not go diving this weekend. As a result, I feel rather “undone” and out of sorts.
It has become essential to my well-being to submerge in the North Pacific at least once a week. Is this because I am addicted to the nitrogen buzz? Do I need the rapture that comes with descending into such natural beauty and wonder? Is it because I get to “check-out” of my terrestrial life for a little while? Does diving move me into a meditative state? Do I miss my fishy and sluggy friends? Do I need the inspiration and perspective on what it truly important in life? Or is it because I was a sea lion in a past life and have not made the full transition to a human existence?
All of these factors may in part cause my desperate need to dive but Dr. Joseph MacInnis states it all so much more eloquently and powerfully in this excerpt from the introduction to his book “Saving the Oceans” (text which I wrote on the first page of my first dive log).
“Of all the acts that confirm our unconscious need to reconsider Nature, few are as symbolic as descending into the ocean. As scuba divers . . . we step off the land, leaving behind our urban alliance with concrete and asphalt. Underwater, our survival hinges on containers of portable air. Inside this strange inner space, we become weightless, drifting toward our aquatic origins.
As trespassers in this other world we are more susceptible to shifts in thinking and emotion. Our eyes are captured by unfamiliar colours and patterns of light and shadow. The pressurized air sliding in and out of our lungs reminds us of our mortality. And from this, it is not a large intuitive leap to consider the mortality of the planet.”
The survey is the result of concerns about the overfishing of this fish species and is conducted just after the spawn (January to February) when females leave the males to guard the egg masses from predation by species like sea stars. There are very few deadbeat dads in this species!
The data collected provide insight into the abundance and reproductive success of Lingcod in British Columbia and include: depth of the egg masses; their size (grapefruit, cantaloupe or watermelon sized); if the eggs are being guarded by a male; and their state of development (new, eyed or rotten). We are very fortunate that our area appears to have relatively abundant and large egg masses. At the end of this blog, you’ll find my 2.5 minute slide show of their life history.
But let me first take you on a wee retrospective journey.
My understanding of the behaviour of these magnificent fish has now evolved to where I now take photos of the extremely territorial males guarding their large orbs of fertilized eggs, but it certainly wasn’t always that way for me. The following is a much exaggerated perspective from when I was a very new diver doing their first Lingcod egg mass survey.
In 1999, I had only ever done 14 dives and had never even seen a Lingcod while diving. So, in preparation for the survey, I consulted my trusty field guide and felt well-prepared knowing the information below:
That first experience with the survey in 1999 led me to writing the following tongue-in-cheek “updated” field guide information in my dive log.
LINGCOD (Megadontos fishious)
Size: &%$#@ huge!!!!!
Description: Teeth sharp, large and fear inducing; species camouflaged for added surprise value; ability to make themselves appear even larger and more menacing by fanning out huge gill plates (opercula). Note: Wise for divers to retreat if this behaviour is observed.
Habitat: Adult males found anywhere that groups of dive slate carrying divers like to congregate.
Comment: Egg masses are said to have eyes at some stage of their development but no living diver can confirm that this is the case!
This is an awe-inspiring fish species indeed. I have even had a male knock my dive slate out of my hands during a survey. Ironically, I was recording “absent” under the column for whether a male was guarding the egg mass!
The Marine Detective 