cabezon

(vertebrate zoology) Scorpaenichthys marmoratus. A fish that is the largest of the sculpin species, weighing as much as 25 pounds (11.3 kilograms) and reaching a length of 30 inches (76 centimeters).

Scorpaenichthys marmoratus

FAMILY

Cottidae

TAXONOMY

Scorpaenichthys marmoratus Ayres, 1854, San Francisco, California, United States. Has at times been separated into its own family, Scorpaenichthyidae.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Giant marbled sculpin, giant sculpin.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

This relatively huge fish (to 30 in [76 cm] and 30 lb [13.6 kg]) has a marbled color pattern that incorporates light and dark gray, brown and beige, or olive green shades. The young often have shades of red. Scales are covered by skin. This is the only sculpin with an unpaired flap of skin on the tip of the snout. The pelagic juvenile is metallic blue, shaped like a blunt-nosed, short salmon smolt.

DISTRIBUTION

Central Baja California, Mexico, to Sitka, southeast Alaska.

HABITAT

Inhabits rocky reefs from very shallow depths down to the limits of kelp growth, sometimes deeper. They tend to hide in kelp beds, sometimes literally hanging in the seaweed. Juveniles occur in tidepools.

BEHAVIOR

An ambush predator, the cabezon tends to be sedentary, relying on the camouflage of its coloring. If stranded in kelp during low tide, a cabezon flares its gill covers and holds still. Pelagic juveniles are attracted to turbulence in a laboratory situation, and will strike at prey in the most rapid flows they can find, which may lead them to settle on exposed shorelines.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Kelp crabs, other crabs, shrimp, snails, clams, worms, or small fish.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Males guard clusters of egg masses during late winter and spring. The egg masses vary in color from burgundy to purple to dark green. The eggs are toxic to birds and mammals that might otherwise predate on them during low tide exposure. Small sculpins crowd in to predate on cabezon larvae hatching at the edges of the nest site, without the male paying any attention to their activity.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not listed by the IUCN. Cabezons show signs of being overfished through their southern range. Depletion is evident in southern British Columbia, where they are not the target of either sport or commercial fishing, although bycatch landings occur in both fisheries. Commercial setline fishing has been directed at cabezons in California for over half a century, and they are considered a top sport angling species there as well. Cabezon spearfishing is popular because of the ease of spearing these big fish.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

The firm flesh of the cabezon is favored by many. It is a popular sport fish with bait anglers, especially in California.