{"id":8681,"date":"2020-02-01T10:01:25","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T18:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larryeifert.com\/?page_id=8681"},"modified":"2020-02-01T10:01:25","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T18:01:25","slug":"2019-03","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2019-03\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 \u2013 10 Red Irish Lord Sculpin"},"content":{"rendered":"

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No other Northwest fish can match the amazing color changes of the Irish Lord. This bottomfish simply (well, simplw for them, evidently) looks at their surroundings and immediately changes their skin color AND pattern to match. Red coral, no problem – gray mud, they\u2019ll turn gray \u2013 green seaweed and it\u2019s a blotchy green fish. The eyes even change color and add texture and patterns, and that seems to be something few other camouflage creatures can do. It\u2019s the shine of the eye that gives away the deer fawn\u2019s existence, but for the Irish Lord \u2013 it will just float, frozen in place and looking like a mass of tube worms or anemones. This sit-and-wait trait also works well for their hunting skills, since even their prey can\u2019t see them until it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

Irish Lords are large fish for sculpins and can reach 20\u201d in length. They have unusually large eyes relative to their bodies and like most other sculpins, they\u2019re only partially scaled. They live along all the coastal Pacific from Russia to Monterey, Ca in shallow water but down as deep as 1500 feet. Irish Lords gather in spawning areas once a year and it\u2019s possible the same pairs return to the same spawning rocks season after season. The male builds the nest. These would be in places of high current and both parents guard the pinkish eggs until they hatch. The current might aid in dispersal when they\u2019re most vulnerable and give the young a fin-up on success. These are beautiful fish and thanks to their spiny array aren\u2019t sought after for food. Lucky for them, and lucky us when we can appreciate them alive.<\/p>\n

Larry Eifert paints and writes about the Pacific Northwest from Port Townsend. His large-scale murals can be seen in many national parks across America, and at larryeifert.com.<\/p>\n

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No other Northwest fish can match the amazing color changes of the Irish Lord. This bottomfish simply (well, simplw for them, evidently) looks at their surroundings and immediately changes their skin color AND pattern to match. Red coral, no problem – gray mud, they\u2019ll turn gray \u2013 green seaweed and it\u2019s a blotchy green fish. … Continue reading 2019 \u2013 10 Red Irish Lord Sculpin<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8709,"parent":6453,"menu_order":31,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8681","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8681"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8718,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8681\/revisions\/8718"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}