One of our members recently came across an injured Rock Ling, Genypterus tigerinus, and filed the following report: –
“It was not doing well, having a significant injury on the top of its head. It was swimming around on the surface as well as lower down, finally deciding to grab it as appeared it was nearly dead.
“It was about 58.5cm, one reference say they grow to 1.2m. Apparently, these fish are common, yet this is the first time I have seen one which I can positively identify. The injury as it appeared (was) more scalped than anything, and unsure if this was due to another fish attacking it, or it had been caught on by a rocky sharp surface, or maybe a glancing spear?”
Another member confirmed the identity of the fish species, saying “Yes definitely a Rock Ling, Genypterus tigerinus. You did the right thing grabbing it, I’m sure.
“By the way, I don’t care what you did with it, but in case you didn’t know, they’re excellent eating. I’ve never eaten one, but all the spearos love them which, together with historical inshore netting practices and recreational line fishing, has made a big dent in their numbers. They are probably best classified as uncommon to rare now, although I have been seeing increasing numbers of them under jetties lately, especially Rapid Bay. I think the GSZs in our MPAs have benefited the species noticeably although that’s just surmising.
“I’ve no real idea what caused the head damage, and any of your suggestions would be possible. (I briefly wondered whether it had suffered really bad ulceration from Striped Sea Louses, but it seems a stretch to suggest that. Particularly given the bigger size of the Ling with regard to those Louses. Although the Louses probably do abandon a host once they have almost killed it. The Louses jump ship onto a fresh host, presumably, rather than waiting for the current host to die.
“The species moves inshore each warm season to mate (or just feed, if immature), then retreat to slightly deeper offshore waters during winter. So they were sitting ducks for spearos and netting types, each summer.
“Digressing, they make strange “bonk ” noises to attract mates, refer to a MLSSA article I wrote ages ago!” (See details further below.)
(Source: The Noisy Inshore Lingerer in our July 2008 newsletter)
Our observer responded with, “after despatching it I did eat it as have heard the same thing over the years, and under the circumstances seemed fair enough. To me it tasted like a fish, quite nice as far as fish go, but nothing to go bonkers over. ….. Mostly I get the impression from spearos many seem to think the rarer the better, and bragging rights, and not probably due to eating something fresher than from a shop. Ling, boar fish, harlequin, etc. Mind you, many of the new generation of spearos can’t even identify what type of fish they spear. ….”
The article referred to is The Noisy Inshore Lingerer in our July 2008 newsletter. It describes those ‘strange “bonk ” noises to attract mates’, and much more.
Unfortunately, these other two images featured in The Noisy Inshore Lingerer are actually of the bearded rock cod, Pseudophycis barbata (Family Moridae).
Bearded rock cod, Pseudophycis barbata
Bearded rock cod, Pseudophycis barbata
(Source: The Noisy Inshore Lingerer in our July 2008 newsletter)
(Header photo taken by Chris Hall.)