Lingcod — a member of the greenling family — isn’t the only West Coast species to turn up with blue-green meat. Its cousins, the rock greenling and the kelp greenling, are sometimes tinted turquoise, as is an unrelated sculpin called the cabezon, which shares the same habitat.
Though usually white-hued like halibut or rockfish, lingcod, a West Coast bottom-dwelling species, occasionally looks as though it’s been marinated overnight in a bag of Blue food dye.
A bile pigment called biliverdin seems to be responsible for turning the blood serum of these fish their stunning color — but how this pigment gets into the tissues and flesh of the fish, or why only some lingcod turn this striking shade, is a mystery to biologists. Biliverdin is a green tetrapyrrolic bile pigment, and is a product of heme catabolism. Even with that, no one is really sure why it happens and why certain types of fish display it, but it is pretty cool. Around 20% of lingcods have blue-green to turquoise flesh. The color is destroyed by cooking.
Rare turquoise individuals taste the same as their white flesh brethren. And during cooking, the blue color vanishes entirely. Those fortunate enough to encounter a blue fillet at the fish counter may be drawn to it for its aesthetic appeal.
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