Cunner | A WAVE OF FLAVOURS

Elongated body, a pointed head and a broad oval tail.

Its colour varies depending on the nature of the marine environment in which it moves. It can be brown, blue, green or red. The belly is bluish to white.

Characteristic small mouth with several rows of uneven, conical teeth. Large lips that are sometimes yellow.

Long, uninterrupted fin on its back.

Body covered with large, rough scales.

Name

Cunner
Tautogolabrus adspersus

Type

Bottom fish

Other names

Chogset, cachogset, bergall

Kitchen name

Cunner

Resource status

Not a cause for concern

Consumption season

Not yet commercialized in Québec.

SIZE:

30 cm, up to 44 cm.

LIFE EXPECTANCY:

10 years.

LIFE CYCLE:

Sexual maturity is attained when around 3 years old.

Spawning takes place from June to mid-August in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Males develop a nuptial coloration, which is more pronounced, at the end of winter. They define a territory and defend it fiercely against other suitors. This territory is where the courtship of the female takes place. Males and females, swimming very close together, release their sperm and eggs into the water. Fertilization takes place externally. Both sexes can mate more than once a day.

The eggs float to the surface and hatch two or three days later.

Underwater photograph of a school of cunner.

Young cunner generally have a black spot on their dorsal fin.
Credit: Richard Larocque, photo taken in the Magdalen Islands, at a depth of 10 m.

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Close to the bottom, 10 to 130 m depth, in salt water.

The cunner is a sedentary fish that lives in coastal waters. It lives on or near the seafloor, in beds of seagrass and hard surfaces, such as rocks, wharves and shipwrecks.

Hibernation

To survive the winter, cunner go into dormancy. When the water temperature drops below 5 °C, it is not uncommon to find cunner in a state of lethargy, under rocks or in crevices. They can stop feeding for up to six months.

PREYS:

Molluscs
Crustaceans
Urchins
Fish eggs

PREDATORS:

Sculpins
Seabirds

No commercial fishing.

In the beginning

Its French name, tanche-tautogue, is borrowed from the Narragansett language of the Nahahiganseck Sovereign Nation, an Algonquin people from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut in the United States. Today, the word “tautog” refers to the Black tautog, a fish closely related to the cunner.

Cunner is a Smarter seafood-listed species.

BENEFITS:

No information.

OUR CULINCARY ADVICE:

Be careful when eating. This fish has many bones.

Species