Featured photo: Big Gulp – Eat that fish, tail and all

Game over: A lingcod shows off the tail end of its latest snack (photo: E. Loury)

Erin Loury

by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab

There’s nothing like seeing the food-chain in action to make you appreciate how important eating is in an animal’s life – and why it’s so important to study (says the fish guts girl)!  For many things in the ocean, it’s just a matter of time before they become something else’s lunch.   It’s a fish eat fish world out there!

This week’s photo comes from summer surveys I participated in with the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program while we surveyed new marine protected areas in central California.  The photo is of a lingcod, and shows off the feature that is probably most important to appreciate when working with these fish – TEETH!  Those are a clear indication that this fish is a predator, and it means business!

What you see in its mouth is the tail end of a hapless rockfish experiencing the ultimate “game over.”  This particular lingcod ate the rockfish right out of the fish trap that both were caught in, but are also big predators on rockfish in the wild too.

Chances are you’ve probably eaten rockfish or lingcod yourself if you live in California – meaning this photo really shows three levels of the food chain – rockfish, lingcod, and humans.   Humans are probably the most voracious predators of all in the marine environment, emphasizing the need to appreciate what we eat, and what it eats in turn!   So the next time you get that fish taco or fish and chips, think about how you are taking part in the bigger ocean food chain.

The long view: MLML student Katie Schmitt shows off a lingcod caught during a tagging survey in California's new marine protected areas (photo: N. Yochum).

Featured Photo: Bust a Gut

Even if this gopher rockfish bit off more than it could chew, it still found a way to swallow it all. (photo: E. Loury)

Erin Loury

by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab

On this, the national day of overeating,  I thought I would kick off our new featured photo segment with an example of a stuffed gullet from the animal world.  For my thesis studying what gopher rockfish eat, I’ve cut open a lot of fish (somewhere in the ballpark of 700, and finally as of this week there are no more fish in my freezer!  Woohoo!).  Every now and again I’ll see something surprising or out of the ordinary – but none so much as this one.

To give you some perspective, most gopher rockfish stomachs that are empty or have a bit a food are the size of my thumb.  The one pictured above was closer to the size of my fist.   I’ll put it this way – their stomach lining is some kind of fantastic elastic.  What floors me is that this little porker was caught with hook and line, meaning after all that eating, it still went for some bait.   But I guess when that pie comes around at the end of tonight, I’ll  probably be able to relate.

Just what kind of food does a gopher rockfish pack in at such staggering volumes?  Stay tuned to find out!