California sheephead
| California sheephead | |
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| File:2007 aquaimages.jpg | |
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| Species: | S. pulcher
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| Binomial name | |
| Semicossyphus pulcher (Ayres, 1854)
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The California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) is a wrasse native to the eastern Pacific Ocean. Its range is from Monterey Bay, California to the Gulf of California, Mexico.[2]
Description
The sheephead can reach a size of 91cm and a weight of 16kg. The male is black with a white jaw and a broad red band spanning the body sometimes. The female is pink. The juvenile form is bright red with a black stripe spanning the body. All sheepheads are born as females and eventually change to males at 18 inches. The age of the transition depends on environmental factors such as food supply.
Biology
The sheephead lives in kelp forests and rocky reefs, where it feeds on sea urchins, mollusks, lobsters, and crabs. Giving birth occurs during the and results in ocean larva.
Fishery
Once abundant in California, overfishing has largely reduced the sheephead population. Its lack of timidity around divers has made the species especially vulnerable to spearfishing. Additionally, the sheephead has a low resilience to population changes, due to its long doubling time of 4.5–14 years[2].
In Spanish, the fish is marketed under its common name "vieja" (old lady), or "vieja de California".
Gallery
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A California Sheephead at Ensenada's fishmarket (Mercado Negro), Baja California, Mexico. -
References
- "Semicossyphus pulcher". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. 18 April.
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- ^ Template:IUCN2006 Database entry includes a lengthy justification of why this species is vulnerable
- ^ a b Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Semicossyphus pulcher". FishBase. February 2006 version.