Fish

What kind of fish can you net in Elkhorn Slough just down the road from MLML?  After the Ichthyology class set our nets on a field trip, we pulled in all kinds of sandy bottom fishes, like this Starry Flounder.  A flat shape and a mottled pattern are perfect adaptations for blending in to the sandy floor.

This Three Spined Stickleback came from deeper in the channel of the slough.  The males build nests out of vegetation and guard them once the females lay their eggs.  Spiny defenses can come in handy when the next generation is at stake!

While fishing over the rocky reefs of San Jose del Cabo in Baja California, Ichthyology lab student Clinton Moran caught himself a 45-pound Pacific dog snapper (Lutjanus novemfasciatus).  Clinton studies the mechanics of how fish feed – being the studious researcher that he is, he decided to clean and  reassemble the head bones of his catch to display the fish’s wicked chompers.  It’s easy to see where the common name comes from with those teeth that look positively canine.  Check out some more fish bone displays from Clinton and other Ichthyology students.

Can you envision what a dog snapper looks like based on its teeth?  Click here to see if you were close!

There’s just something mouthwateringly adorable about this little butterfish, caught during a shallower NMFS trawl in Southern California.  The Pacific pompano (Peprilus simillimus), is “a very-mild, good eating fish,” says the Pier Fishing in California website, “but only the largest fish have enough meat to make it worth the effort.” Still, the website goes on to call them “an attractive little fish.”  I have to agree – plus, the name “pompano” is just so darn fun to say.

You may think the title of this post is a typo, but YOY actually stands for “young of the year,” which are age-zero fish, or those that were born within the past year.  These little guys are KGB rockfish, which means that they are Kelp, Gopher, Black and Yellow, or Copper rockfish.  You probably already figured it out, but KGB comes from the Kelp, Gopher, and Black part of this complex – we identify them as “KGBs” because the species are hard, if not impossible to tell apart at this age.  Last year in late spring and early summer, the kelp forests were teeming with these guys.  If you managed to get out on the water, you might have noticed them hanging out in the kelp forest canopies, one of the places they go for cover.

Rock greenling really know how to rock the spots.   Though a little on the loud side above water, these showy patterns actually help the fish blend in with their rocky subtidal surroundings.  These fish were caught during fishing surveys at Point Lobos as part of the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program.   And look, they even come in assorted colors…

If you’re trying to study tidepool fishes, two words: good luck.  These tiny and cryptic fishes like to hunker down in the rocks, making them very hard to spot.  To get a closer look, the MLML Ichthyology class bubbles a little carbon dioxide into the pool to temporarily stun the fishes and coax them to the surface.  In this case, the fishes were still playing hard to get – guess they don’t go for sparkling water.