Gling fish and its habitat

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:42

A greenling fish has a slender and laterally compressed body, along which light and dark wide stripes alternate. Its dorsal fin is gray, with a black narrow border, solid and long. The belly and underside of the head are yellow.

Gling fish has several names among the people. Fishermen call it red greenling, sea lenok or red perch. In city markets, sellers simply call it perch or greenling perch. But from experts you will hear about the Kuril snakehead or harehead greenling, because it is this translation that has the Latin name of the species.

Gling fish - photo

This fish is well known to everyone who has ever gone fishing in Avacha Bay, it is often caught in the coastal zone. The harehead lives extensively in the Pacific Ocean, namely, in the northern part, meeting along the entire Asian coast, from the Yellow Sea to the Barents Sea. And then its habitat extends along the American coast as far as California. But most often it can be found in the waters of southeastern Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands.

The greenling fish is quite large. Its weight exceeds 2.5 kg,and the length is more than 55 cm. Seasonal migrations are characteristic of greenlings. In late May or early June, coastal waters warm up enough, and it approaches the shallow water zone (20-30 m deep) for spawning. The reef zone with areas of rocky soil is the place where the greenling fish is found during spawning. As a rule, he keeps in the zone of underwater vegetation, as it is the substrate for his eggs.

The spawning period of the greenling is quite extended, this is due to the portioned spawning. Initially, males accumulate at the spawning grounds, they choose the most suitable sites. Females swim up to these protected areas, they start spawning in portions. After spawning is completed, the females leave the spawning site. But the males remain to guard the masonry until the larvae hatch. Only brightly colored and largest individuals of males remain for protection. After the embryonic development of eggs is over, and this happens from early to mid-October, the hare-headed greenling begins to move away from the coast. It dives for wintering to a depth of up to 300 m. But its juveniles first live in the water column, and only after reaching a certain size will they switch to a bottom lifestyle.

The greenling fish is an omnivore. She continues to feed actively even during spawning. Basically, her diet includes various crustaceans, small fish and mollusks.

Gerpug does not disdain the waste of the fishing industry, and the caviar of other fish is used, as, indeed,gaping brothers. And I must say that caviar is an integral part of his diet.

Gling fish is an object of sea fishermen in Kamchatka. Its largest abundance is observed in the ocean waters of South-Eastern Kamchatka and the Northern Kuriles. It is occasionally found in western waters and off the southwestern coast of the Bering Sea. Most often, individuals over 1.5 kg and up to 49 cm long are caught. As soon as spring warming begins, greenlings move to coastal waters. At the end of March, its shoals appear at a depth of 200 meters, and in April it already goes to the shelf. In coastal waters, fishing is easy, you can not even go out on a boat, but just go deeper into the water.