FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 87, NO. 1 



Figure 4.— Stage of ovarian development 

 versus time of capture. 



SEPT OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT 



MONTH 



Spawned 

 Unspawned 



Figure 5.— Average wet gonad-somatic weight index 

 (WGSI) X 100 versus stage of ovarian development. Ver- 

 tical bars represent the 95% confidence limits. 



March to April. The spawning season reported for 

 S. marmoratus in California is half as long (Novem- 

 ber to March) and peak spawning occurs 3 to 4 

 months earlier (O'Connell 1953) than found in this 

 study. This is contrary to what one might expect 

 based on general patterns (Qasim 1956). Teleosts 

 in high latitudes generally spawn once and have 

 relatively short spawning seasons during the winter 

 and early spring. On the other hand, most fishes at 

 lower latitudes have protracted spawning seasons 

 and spawn more than once. Seasonal fluctuations 

 in production cycles (food supply) are less defined 

 in lower latitudes, hence females are able to feed 

 more or less continuously to build sufficient energy 

 reserves for a longer spawning season consisting of 

 multiple batches. Spawning time and duration usual- 

 ly synchronize with production cycles so that larvae 

 have a better chance for survival (Nikolsky 1963; 

 Gushing 1982). 



■o 



c 



>- 

 Q 



Z) 



o 



X 



o 



< 



CD 



#eggs . 29TL - 87.54 



r = 0.69 



P<0.001 



450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 

 TOTAL LENGTH (mm) 



» eggs - 10-8W + 39.25 



r = 0.73 



P<0,001 



4 5 6 7 8 9 

 BODY WEIGHT (KG) 



10 11 



Figure 6.— Plots and regressions of batch fecundity (thousands 

 of eggs) versus total length (mm) and weight (kg) for female 

 cabezon from Puget Sound. 



Female cabezon are probably similar to other 

 species of marine sculpins along the west coast 

 which spawn multiple batches of eggs during a 

 single spawning season (Atkinson 1939; DeMartini 

 1978; Goldberg 1980). O'Connell (1953) suspected 



152 



