Fish and squid that do spawn off central California have different reproductive
strategies. Fish like the kelp greenling (Hexagrammus decagrammus) and ling cod
(Ophiodon elongatus) deposit their adhesive eggs on the bottom and the young hatch
as rather advanced larvae. Presumably, they stay near the bottom and are not carried
away. Surf perches (Embiatocidae) bear live young, large, “precocious larvae”,
probably capable of enough swimming to remain in the zone very close to shore from
which water is not rapidly exchanged offshore during upwelling. The rock fishes
(Sebastes spp.) are live-bearing, although the young released are small, in yolk-sac
stage, and not particularly competent. However, the bulk of releases are in January to
early March, when flow near the coast is onshore and northward (Moser & Boehlert
1991). Sebastes larvae do get carried seaward, and they are among the most common
larvae of demersal fish in the plankton beyond the continental slope. Possibly, they
are capable of a very long larval phase, retaining some chance of eventually reaching
a suitable settling habitat over the shelf or slope. The very oldest pre-settlement stages
of Sebastes are mostly captured in the neuston, that is, in the upper few centimeters of
ff
(ff)
#1