NESA Species Hunt 2013

[Thunderpants]

Another 1 only a rockling like

Shore Rockling added.

[Thunderpants]

Wee Ver did you count the number of beards on your rockling? It's colouration looks similar to the five bearded rockling I caught this morning .....

[Wee Ver]

Defo only had 3

[Thunderpants]

Ok mate, shore rockling it is then.

[Stewart 1971]

Had a busy day...

Long Spined Sea Scorpion


Dab


Flounder


Eelpout?

[toonboymc]

A coalie for Codfather 145

[toonboymc]

A codling for Codfather 145

[toonboymc]

A scorpion fish for me

[toonboymc]

A scorpion fish for mad rob

[Thunderpants]

Well done lads, it's turning out to be a busy weekend. Table updated.

[Aqua-holic]

Five bearded rockling

[Thunderpants]

Rockling added.

[lumpsucker]

Pollock

[Thunderpants]

Three Bearded Rockling.

[Thunderpants]

Rockling Identification

There are quite a few rocklings in the Species Hunt which have been labelled Shore Rockling and I now think that this is wrong and that most of them should be relabelled Three Bearded Rocklings. I have written this little article to explain why .....

Rockling identification has always been a tricky one and has caused some confusion, for me just as much as anybody. It's easy enough to spot a Five Bearded Rockling as it is the only one with five beards but the difficult one is the difference between the Three Bearded Rockling and the Shore Rockling both of which have three beards (three barbels). Generally the Three Bearded Rockling is described as having dark spots on a lighter coloured body whereas the Shore Rockling is plain looking or sometimes has a mottled pattern (light patches on a dark background). The Lyme Regis SAC website describes this with photos shown below LRSAC Official Website.


Three Bearded Rockling




Shore Rocklings

Based on this I have previously assumed that the plain looking rocklings we have been catching in the north east were Shore Rocklings but it appears that this is not the case. Lambtonworm has pointed out to me that there are no records of Shore Rocklings ever being caught in the north east (thanks for the heads up mate). I have had a look around on the internet and found this distribution map for the Shore Rockling on the Marlin website MarLIN - The Marine Life Information Network


Shore rockling - Gaidropsarus mediterraneus

The blue dots show where Shore Rocklings have been recorded and as you can see there are none in our area. The Lyme Regis SAC website says they mainly catch Shore Rocklings where they are on the south coast and that the Three Bearded Rockling is extremely rare there. This website Shore rockling says that "Shore Rocklings live in and around rocky areas throughout the English Channel".

According to wikepedia the "Three-bearded rockling (Gaidropsarus vulgaris) is found in European waters from the central Norwegian coast and the Faroe Islands, through the North Sea and around the British Isles to the region around the Western Mediterranean." Three-bearded rockling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So it looks like in our region any rockling we catch with three barbels must be a Three Bearded Rockling as the Shore Rockling does not venture this far north. I will change the ones in the Species Hunt to 3B Rocklings with the exception of the one caught by Bassboyo as his shows the distinctive mottled pattern of a Shore Rockling and his southern location (we assume ) is correct for that species. If anyone has any objections or would like to discuss please comment below.

In future then, if anyone catches a rockling for the species hunt please bear in mind the part of the UK it was caught in and also count the barbels. They are easy enough to count - they are often stuck to the head when you pull them out of the sea but if you run your finger gently across the top of its head from front to back you can flick them up. If it has five barbels (four on top of the head and one under the chin) then you have caught a Five Bearded Rockling, if it has three (two on top of the head and one under the chin) and if you are in the north east you have caught a Three Bearded Rockling and if in you are in the South Coast / English Channel area then you have probably caught a Shore Rockling. Does that sound ok with everybody?