A total of 1,692 lingcod were tagged during 1976- 

 81. Most of the lingcod (over 90%) were tagged dur- 

 ing March through May. When caught singly, they 

 were immediately tagged and released. If several 

 lingcod were brought aboard at the same time, they 

 were held in a circulating seawater tank until 

 tagged. All tagged fish were measured (fork length) 

 to the nearest millimeter. From 1978 to 1981, sex 

 was determined by the presence of the anal papillae 

 in males. Only fish not injured by capture were 

 tagged and released. Those that bled, or that were 

 hooked in the gills or throat, or that otherwise ap- 

 peared disabled were not tagged. 



Three types of spaghetti end tags were used: 

 Anchor with #20 tubing (Floyi FD-67, Floy Co., 

 Seattle, WA); small dart with #20 tubing (Floy 



FT-2); and large dart with #13 tubing (Floy FT-1). 

 The tagging area and number tagged at each loca- 

 tion are shown in Figure 1. The principal tagging 

 locations were Middle Bank, a low relief, hard rub- 

 ble bottom bank of about 6 km^ and 20-60 m deep; 

 Hein Bank, of similar area to Middle Bank but 

 shallower (6-30 m deep), having a softer bottom and 

 extensive kelp beds; and San Juan Channel, a 

 passage with high relief, rocky substrate 2-6 km 

 wide, coursing among several of the San Juan 

 Islands. Most of the tagging in San Juan Channel 

 was done near Turn Island in about 30 m of water. 

 A few lingcod were tagged at other locations near 

 San Juan Island. 



Recapture information, including primarily the 

 date and place of capture, was obtained from tags 



'Reference to trade names does not imply endorsement by the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 



Figure L— Lingcod tagging area in relation to western Washington. Small numbers show depth contours in fathoms (1 fathom = 1.829 



m) and large numbers show numbers tagged by location. 



154 



