California sheephead

California sheephead
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Labriformes
Family: Labridae
Genus: Bodianus
Species:
B. pulcher
Binomial name
Bodianus pulcher
(Ayres, 1854)[2]
Synonyms
  • Labrus pulcher Ayres, 1854[3]
  • Pimelometopon pulcher (Ayres, 1854)[4]
  • Bodianus pulcher (Ayres, 1854)

The California sheephead (Bodianus (formerly Semicossyphus) pulcher) is a species of wrasse native to the eastern Pacific Ocean. Its range is from Monterey Bay, California, to the Gulf of California, Mexico.[5] It can live for up to 20 years in favorable conditions and can reach a size of up to 91 cm (3 ft) and a weight of 16 kg (35 lb).[5] It is carnivorous, living in rocky reef and kelp bed habitats, feeding primarily on sea urchins, molluscs, and crustaceans.

All California sheephead are hatched female and morph into their male form at various stages in their lifecycle, determined by environmental conditions and pressures. Because of this, they are considered to be protogynous hermaphrodites which have planktonic larvae. Their coral and kelp-heavy habitat provides protection from predators, which is important as this species is diurnal, foraging during the day and seeking shelter at night.

The California sheephead is considered vulnerable due to high fishing rates off of the coast of southern California. Since fisheries tend to remove the largest fish, they end up removing the males. This skews the male-to-female ratio and affects the fishes' lifecycle, which can negatively affect populations.[6][7]

  1. ^ Cornish, A.; Dormeier, M.; et al. (Grouper & Wrasse Specialist Group) (2006). "Semicossyphus pulcher". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2006: e.T61340A12464899. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2006.RLTS.T61340A12464899.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  2. ^ Günther, Albert (1861). "A Preliminary Synopsis of the Labroid Genera". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Ser. 3. 8 (47): 384. doi:10.1080/00222936108697435.
  3. ^ Ayres, W. O. (1854). "[Description of new fishes from California]". Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. 1: 3–4.
  4. ^ Gill, Theodore (1864). "Description of a New Labroid Genus Allied to Trochocopus Gthr". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 16 (2): 57–59. JSTOR 4623897.
  5. ^ a b Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2006). "Semicossyphus pulcher" in FishBase. February 2006 version.
  6. ^ Braje, Todd J.; Rick, Torben C.; Szpak, Paul; Newsome, Seth D.; McCain, Joseph M.; Elliott Smith, Emma A.; Glassow, Michael; Hamilton, Scott L. (February 2017). "Historical ecology and the conservation of large, hermaphroditic fishes in Pacific Coast kelp forest ecosystems". Science Advances. 3 (2): e1601759. Bibcode:2017SciA....3E1759B. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1601759. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 5287704. PMID 28164155.
  7. ^ Hamilton, S. L.; Caselle, J. E. (10 December 2014). "Exploitation and recovery of a sea urchin predator has implications for the resilience of southern California kelp forests". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 282 (1799): 20141817. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.1817. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 4286036. PMID 25500572.