If you have fished from the beach, shore, or tidepools in northern Mendocino County north of Fort Bragg, please help document the Cahto language by emailing me (Sally Anderson) with any of the following information. Note that all email addresses, names, and personally identifying information will be treated as confidential unless you request otherwise. With permission, I would like to give credit to those who help with identifications.
1. What kinds (species and/or common names) of fish have you caught from shore/beach, and which are more common?
2. Of fish with "long teeth" what do you catch frequently? There is a fish called toonai-woo'nees, meaning "long tooth fish," with no further identification. I'm especially wondering whether lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus) or wolf-eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus) are frequently caught from shore.
3. What kinds of flatfish (flounders, sole, sanddabs, California halibut) do you frequently catch? Does any one kind tend to be lighter colored ("white") in that area?
4. What kinds of reddish, brown, or orange rockfish do you catch from shore? Are there other common ones beside the copper rockfish (Sebastes caurinus)?
5. Do you ever catch dark-colored surf-perch? Do you ever catch surf-perch other than redtails (Amphistichus rhodoterus)? Are redtails dark-colored in that region?
6. Do you ever catch mackerels? Are they jack mackerels (Trachurus symmetricus) or Pacific mackerels (Scomber japonicus)?
7. What other "blue fish" have you caught besides the blue rockfish (Sebastes mystinus)?
8. Do you ever catch surf-fish other than surf smelt (Hypomesus pretiosus)? In particular, do you ever catch night smelt (Spirinchus Starksi), jack smelt (Atherinopsis californiensis), or longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys)? Do you catch them all the same way, with nets in the surf?
9. Do you know what the "sardines" at Usal are? Are they Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax), northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax), or some other fish altogether? Do you catch them with nets in the surf like the surf-fish or with nets out in the water?
Thank you very much!