NESA Species Hunt 2013

I dont see the confusion here. I thought we had already reached a consensus. My understanding was that leopard spots from any location would be one species, drab looking local slugs with 3 beards another, so one way or the other we are drawing a distinction between 3 beard and shore, and then the 5 beard is a 3rd species.
 
Im a firm believer we get shore rocklings in the north east


that map showing shore rockling distribution has to be wrong there is no way that they would be confined to such a small area

It would be wrong to dismiss all "3bd" as undeveloped 5 bd's
 
Stewart 1971 said:
Have to say I agree with this and also think most so-called 3B are in truth shore rockling. All the 3B I've had in the NE have had pretty distinctive colouration like this one from last years hunt:

Click to expand...

Stewart your pic shows light spots on a dark background which is the colouration for a shore rockling (see pic below from LRSAC website). I don't think it's a 3B as that would be dark spots on a light background. Did you catch it in the north east?

mottled_rockling_holyhead.jpg

LRSAC Shore Rockling pic


P1000526.JPG

LRSAC 3B Rockling pic
 
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Thunderpants said:
Yes I agree that nobody has caught a 3B but think they are 5B not shore rockling.
Click to expand...

I think we could discuss this for ever and not come to a definite conclusion. Maybe the only way would be if your pic shows five barbules then 5b it is if it only shows three then a shore rockling unless it has distinct 3b markings
 
Shore rockling's don't come this far north, its simple, same as other fish that don't come this far north, the problem is not with identifying the species, its with the angles and quality of the photo's supplied here.
The solution is really simple, if you catch a 5b rockling, put the fish on its belly then you arrange the barbels so they stick out, and photo from above, like this

five_bearded_rockling_2.jpg


if you can't clearly see the barbels, take a picture until you can.

and I still say Nemo's rockling was a 3b, on a 5b, the middle barbles are close together on the top lip, inbetween the upper barbels, the stumps that were spoken about were its nostrils...

Of course then there is the issue of 4 bearded rocklings....
 
Bassboyo said:
I think we could discuss this for ever and not come to a definite conclusion. Maybe the only way would be if your pic shows five barbules then 5b it is if it only shows three then a shore rockling unless it has distinct 3b markings
Click to expand...

Yes that's the way we were originally doing it until we found out that shore rocklings don't occur in the north east so I changed them all to 3B. Now it looks like they are not 3B either. One solution would be to go back to the way we did it in the 2012 competition and just allow one rockling and ignore the seperate species? Same goes for sandeels.
 
Thunderpants said:
Yes that's the way we were originally doing it until we found out that shore rocklings don't occur in the north east so I changed them all to 3B. Now it looks like they are not 3B either. One solution would be to go back to the way we did it in the 2012 competition and just allow one rockling and ignore the seperate species? Same goes for sandeels.
Click to expand...

Agreed ;-) saves a lot of hassle in identifying when there are not obvious differences like in other species, IE scorpions , wrasse, pouts etc.
 
Bass used to be very rare this far north, now they are relatively common. Smoothhound are starting to show off the NE coast although still very rare. As for Shore Rockling distribution, these guys are pretty much regarded as the guru's for fish identification and habitat Gaidropsarus mediterraneus, Shore rockling : fisheries

Their distribution map for Shore Rockling clearly shows they are very common in the north sea and off the Norwegian coast and whilst less common can definitely be found in numbers off the NE coast: http://www.aquamaps.org/receive.php

 
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I think we have established my "3bd" isnt a 5 bd lol

im i being accredited with shore rockling or 3bd

I think we neee to sort the whole thing out and debate over each rockling posted
 

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