RobTufnail, This all makes sense now. When building buildings in the Capital Hill area in Seattle and I think they change sexes too when the females leave. Hmmm.......Interesting concept.
As far as lingcod, when the female lays the eggs, the smaller male stays behind to guard them. They usually head for shallower water to lay them. I guess they look like a white basketball sized mass.
We have a problem with the tribes down here with the spot prawns. BC waits for them to hatch their eggs before commercially trapping them. The Tribes in Washington take this as an opportunity to beat BC to the market. Pretty sad. Wish the buyers would reject shrimp with eggs on them.The old commercial with the indian with the tear running down his cheek would certainly apply here today if they could see what their offspring are doing to the resource.