The Outdoor Line Forum

What is it that causes a ling to turn blue?

Schmidt-
Not sure that anyone knows for sure why some ling cod have blue flesh. Though it is interesting that lings from different areas often have different portion of the population with that "blue" flesh.

Many have speculated that coloration may be diet related. A good bet would be hemocyanin from the squid and crabs in their diet. Hemocyanin is a copper base compoound found in the blood of squid/octopus, and crabs that carrys the bloods oxygen.

Tight lines
Curt

Good call Smalma! Anytime something appears blue or green in the marine environment there's a good bet that copper is involved.

Whereas us humans, salmon, lings and any other critter that has red blood has iron-bearing hemoglobin, crustaceans and mollusks utilize copper for the same function.

Green or blue blood... kinda like a Vulcan huh?

Funny that this topic just hit the board today...as I was just wondering the same thing ma'sef We caught these two lings today a long, long ways from any crab grounds. Suffice to say the blue ling could've munched on his fair share of squid in the last few months. Not surprisingly they both lived near a huge sea bass-tard colony. One was smurf blue with blue meat and the bigger one was a deep rusty red color.

...and the ink pouch from the bigger one. Is that ink or something else Smalma?

Based on what I have seen and heard it is totally diet related.

I don't think I have ever caught a deep water hog ling cod that had anything but normal, white colored flesh.

Yet fast forward to near shore fishing where there may be a whole lot more crab and crustations in the diet of ling cod and the number of blue fleshed ling cod goes way up.

Several years ago I caught some Chinook salmon that was absolutely two colors of marbled flesh and the explanation I was given on it was diet.

Herring and fish based diets produced normal red/pink meat whereas krill produced white or light colored flesh.

Changes in diet midlife due to whatever reason is what produced the marbled, two colored flesh.

Just my .02

WD.

I was told that it could be from octopus or squid ink. The baby ling I caught before the blue one puked out a pretty fair sized octopus.

I've heard different reasons for the blue color but what about the taste? I swear that a blue ling tastes better, anyone else?

Salmonhawk wrote:I've heard different reasons for the blue color but what about the taste? I swear that a blue ling tastes better, anyone else?

I think the texture is much firmer on the ones that have crossed my table, but the blue flesh always cooks out white regardless.

WD.

Whenever possible I select lings between 28 and 32 inches for my table. In that size range I have not noticed any difference between the "blue" and white meat fish on the dinner plate.

However I think the issue needs more study and I hope to continue to sample several a season - LOL!

Curt