North Pacific Hake - Ecology

Ecology

They occur from the surface to depths of 1,000 m (3,300 ft). North Pacific hake are nocturnal feeders that undergo diel vertical migrations off the bottom in order to feed on a variety of fishes and invertebrates. Its diet includes shrimp, plankton and smaller fishes. They are an important prey item for sea lions, small cetaceans, and dogfish sharks.

There are three recognized stocks of Pacific hake: a highly migratory offshore (or coastal) stock that ranges from southern California to Queen Charlotte Sound, a central-south Puget Sound stock, and a Strait of Georgia (SOG) stock. The offshore North Pacific hake stock spawned off south-central California to Baja California in the winter months of January and February during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In spring and summer adults migrated northward to feed to as far as central Vancouver Island (and as far as Queen Charlotte Sound in some years). In the fall, adults migrated southward toward spawning grounds. Since the early 1990s a percentage of the offshore stock has remained off the west coast of Canada year round and some Pacific hake have been observed spawning off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Resident Pacific hake in Puget Sound spawn in Port Susan and Dabob Bay from February through April. The SOG resident stock aggregates to spawn in the deep basins of the south-central Strait of Georgia where peak spawning occurs from March to May.