Movement of Tagged 

 Lingcod Ophiodon elongatus 

 at Meah Bay, Washington 



Thomas H. Jagielo 



Washington Department of Fisheries 



7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, Washington 981 15 



Lingcod Ophiodon elongatus is an 

 important component of Wasliing- 

 ton's coastal commercial and spoi't 

 fisheries (Jagielo 1989). Female 

 lingcod comprise most of the off- 

 shore commercial landings, grow 

 faster than males, and attain a larger 

 size. Males predominate in the near- 

 shore sport catch, are typically 

 smaller than females, and perform 

 a nest guarding role during repro- 

 duction. These characteristics of the 

 coastal lingcod population suggest 

 the need for an integrated stock 

 assessment which addresses males 

 and females separately and takes 

 the geographic distribution and mi- 

 gratory behavior into account. 



This paper reports the movement 

 of lingcod tagged nearshore in the 

 western Strait of Juan de Fuca 

 near Neah Bay, Washington, during 

 1986-89. Results are presented for 

 tags recovered through 1989 and 

 analyzed by sex and size for extent 

 and direction of movement. I also 

 evaluated tag retention of a wire 

 spaghetti tag applied on the preop- 

 ercular plate as an alternative to 

 strap, anchor, or dart tags used pre- 

 viously for lingcod tagging (Chat- 

 win 1958, Forrester 1973, Cass et 

 al. 1983, Mathews and LaRiviere 

 1987). 



Methods 



From 1986 to 1989, 3478 lingcod 

 were tagged using a chartered com- 

 mercial vessel trolling with 6-10 

 jigs from a hydraulic gurdy. Each 

 year fishing occurred from mid- 

 March to mid-April in advance of 



the sportfishery opening on 15 

 April. Only fish not injured by cap- 

 ture were tagged and released. All 

 tagged fish were measured to the 

 nearest millimeter, and sex was 

 determined by noting the presence 

 of anal papillae in males. 



The tagging area was within 3 

 miles of the shoreline in the vicin- 

 ity of Neah Bay, Washington, and 

 extended from the Sekiu River to 

 Makah Bay (Fig. 1). In 1986, the 

 tagging effort was distributed even- 

 ly among areas NB-1, NB-2, and 

 NB-3. Area NB-4 was added in 1987, 

 and effort was distributed evenly 

 among the four areas from 1987 to 

 1989. Most of the tagging occurred 

 at depths between 15-25 m. 



In 1986 two tag types were re- 

 leased: 481 fish were tagged with a 

 large dart tag (Floy FT-1) applied 

 dorsally, and 487 fish were tagged 

 with a wire spaghetti tag (Floy 

 FT-4) twist-tied to the preopercuiar 

 plate. Fish were alternately tagged 

 with one of the two tag types and 

 were released back into the popula- 

 tion. Recaptures from 1986 to 1989 

 for the two tag types are shown in 

 Table 1. In 1987 and 1988, 207 fish 

 were double-tagged with the spag- 

 hetti tag to evaluate tag shedding. 

 Through September of 1989, 20 of 

 the double-tagged fish were recov- 

 ered, all with both tags in place. 

 Since tag shedding appeared to be 

 negligible for the spaghetti tag, only 

 fish released with the spaghetti tag 

 (2997 lingcod) were analyzed for 

 movement trends in this paper. 



Recapture information, including 

 the date and location of captiu-e. 



was obtained both by direct inter- 

 views with fishermen and by volun- 

 tary returns submitted by fisher- 

 men. A $10 reward was paid for the 

 return of tags, which was available 

 directly on landing at Neah Bay. 



Migratory and nonmigratory 

 lingcod were defined as fish recap- 

 tured at distances greater than or 

 less than 8.1 km (5 miles) from the 

 tagging location, respectively. This 

 reference distance was selected to 

 enable comparisons with previous 

 tagging studies. Chi-square contin- 

 gency-table analysis was used for 

 comparing release length-frequency 

 distributions of migratory and non- 

 migratory recoveries and migra- 

 tional tendency by sex. A chi-square 

 goodness-of-fit test was used to test 

 the null hypothesis that the release 

 length distribution of recaptured 

 lingcod was the same as the release 

 length disti'ibution of all tagged 

 lingcod. Length-frequency distribu- 

 tions were grouped into 5-cm inter- 

 vals and pooled at the tails so that 

 no expected cell frequency was < 1.0 

 and no more than 20% of the ex- 

 pected cell frequencies was <5.0 

 (Zar 1974, p. 50). One-way analysis 

 of variance was used to test the null 

 hypothesis that the mean time at 

 liberty was the same for fish that 

 had migrated different distances. 



Results 



Through September 1989, 393 

 (13.1%) tagged lingcod were recap- 

 tured (Table 2). The percent recap- 

 tured for each release group rang- 

 ed from 9.96%, in 1989 to 18.89%. in 

 1986. The lower recovery rate for 

 the 1989 release is probably a re- 

 flection of fewer recovery years as 

 compared with releases from 1986 

 to 1988. 



The length distribution of tagged 

 lingcod by sex are shown in Figure 

 2a. Of all tagged lingcod, 99% were 

 sexed; 84% of this sample were 



Manuscript accepted 2;t .June 1990. 

 Fishery Bulletin. U.S. 88:815-820. 



