Sebastes

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|33.9|0}} Early Oligocene to present{{cite journal

|last=Sepkoski

|first=J.

|title=A compendium of fossil marine animal genera

|journal=Bulletins of American Paleontology

|volume=364

|page=560

|date=2002

|url=http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220223520/http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class

|archive-date=2009-02-20

}}

| image = Sebastes ruberrimus 1.jpg

| image_caption = Sebastes ruberrimus (yelloweye rockfish)

| taxon = Sebastes

| authority = G. Cuvier, 1829

| type_species =Sebastes norvegicus{{cite web|url=http://spo.nwr.noaa.gov/mfr622/mfr6221.pdf|title= An Historical Review of Sebastes Taxonomy and Systematics|author =Kendall, A.W.Jr.|publisher =NOAA}}

| type_species_authority = (Ascanius, 1772)

| synonyms = * Acutomentum Eigenmann & Beeson, 1893

Allosebastes Hubbs, 1951
Auctospina Eigenmann & Beeson, 1893
Emmelas Jordan & Evermann, 1898
Eosebastes Jordan & Evermann, 1896
Eusebastes Sauvage, 1878
Hatumeus Matsubara, 1943
Hispaniscus Jordan & Evermann, 1896
Mebarus Matsubara, 1943
Murasoius Matsubara, 1943
Neohispaniscus Matsubara, 1943
Perca Ascanius, 1772
Pteropodus Eigenmann & Beeson, 1893
Primospina Eigenmann & Beeson, 1893
Rosicola Jordan & Evermann, 1896
Sebastichthys Gill, 1862
Sebastocarus Jordan & Evermann, 1927
Sebastocles Jordan & Hubbs, 1925
Sebastodes Gill, 1861
Sebastomus Gill, 1864
Sebastopyr Jordan & Evermann, 1927
Sebastomus Gill, 1864
Takenokius Matsubara, 1943
Zalopyr Jordan & Evermann, 1898

| synonyms_ref =

}}

Sebastes is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Sebastinae part of the family Scorpaenidae, most of which have the common name of rockfish. A few are called ocean perch, sea perch or redfish instead. They are found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Taxonomy

Sebastes was first described as a genus in 1829 by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier, the Dutch ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker designated Perca norvegica, which may have been originally described by the Norwegian zoologist Peter Ascanius in 1772, as the type species in 1876.{{Cof family | family = Sebastidae | access-date = 1 November 2021}} The genus is the type genus of both the tribe Sebastini and the subfamily Sebastinae, although some authorities treat these as the subfamily Sebastinae and the family Sebastidae, separating the Sebastidae as a distinct family from the Scorpaenidae.{{FishBase family | family = Sebastidae | month = June | year =2021}}{{cite book |title=Fishes of the World |edition=5th |author1=J. S. Nelson |author2=T. C. Grande |author3=M. V. H. Wilson |year=2016 |pages= 468–475 |publisher=Wiley |isbn= 978-1-118-34233-6 |url=https://sites.google.com/site/fotw5th/ }} but other authorities place it in the Perciformes in the suborder Scorpaenoidei.{{cite journal | author1 = Ricardo Betancur-R | author2 = Edward O. Wiley | author3 = Gloria Arratia | author4 = Arturo Acero | author5 = Nicolas Bailly | author6 = Masaki Miya | author7 = Guillaume Lecointre | author8 = Guillermo Ortí | display-authors = 3 | title =Phylogenetic classification of bony fishes | journal = BMC Evolutionary Biology | volume = 17 | issue = 162 | year = 2017 | doi = 10.1186/s12862-017-0958-3| doi-access = free | pmc = 5501477 | bibcode = 2017BMCEE..17..162B }}

Some authorities subdivide this large genus into subgenera as follows:

Sebastes Cuvier, 1829
S. fasciatus
S. mentella
S. norvegicus
S. viviparus
Acutomentum Eigenmann & Beeson, 1893
S. alutus
S. baramenuke
S. brevispinis
S. entomelas
S. flammeus
S. hopkinsi
S. iracundus
S. kiyomatsui
S. macdonaldi
S. minor
S. ovalis
S. rufus
S. scythropus
S. wakiyai
Allosebastes Hubbs, 1951
S. cortezi
S. diploproa
S. emphaeus
S. peduncularis
S. proriger
S. rufinanus
S. saxicola
S. semicinctus
S. sinensis
S. variegatus
S. varispinis
S. wilsoni
S. zacentrus
Auctospina Eigenmann & Beeson 1893
S. auriculatus
S. dallii
Emmelas Jordan & Evermann 1898
S. glaucus
Eosebastes Jordan & Evermann, 1896
S. aurora
S. crameri
S. melanosema
S. melanostomus
Hatumeus Matsubara, 1943
S. owstoni
Hispaniscus Jordan & Evermann, 1896
S. elongatus
S. levis
S. rubrivinctus
Mebarus Matsubara 1943
S. atrovirens
S. cheni
S. inermis
S. joyneri
S. taczanowskii
S. thompsoni
S. ventricosus
Murasoius Matsubara 1943
S. nudus
S. pachycephalus
Neohispaniscus Matsubara 1943
S. schlegelii
S. vulpes
S. zonatus
Pteropodus Eigenmann & Beeson, 1893
S. carnatus
S. caurinus
S. chrysomelas
S. hubbsi
S. longispinis
S. maliger
S. nebulosus
S. nivosus
S. rastrelliger
S. trivittatus
Rosicola Jordan & Evermann, 1896
S. babcocki
S. miniatus
S. pinniger
Sebastichthys Gill, 1862
S. nigrocinctus
Sebastocarus Jordan & Evermann, 1927
S. serriceps
Sebastodes Gill, 1861
S. goodei
S. itinus
S. jordani
S. paucispinis
S. steindachneri
Sebastomus Gill, 1864
S. capensis
S. chlorostictus
S. constellatus
S. ensifer
S. eos
S. exsul
S. helvomaculatus
S. lentiginosus
S. notius
S. oculatus
S. rosaceus
S. rosenblatti
S. serranoides
S. simulator
S. spinorbis
S. umbrosus
Sebastopyr Jordan & Evermann, 1927
S. ruberrimus
Sebastosomus Gill, 1864
S. ciliatus
S. diaconus
S. flavidus
S. melanops
S. mystinus
S. variabilis
Takenokius Matsubara, 1943
S. oblongus
Zalopyr Jordan & Evermann, 1898
S. aleutianus
S. borealis
S. matsubarae
S. melanostictus
Incertae sedis
S. gilli
S. koreanus
S. moseri
S. phillipsi
S. polyspinis
S. reedi

The genus name is derived from the Greek Sebastos, an honorific used in ancient Greek for the Roman imperial title of Augustus, an allusion to the old name for S. norvegicus on Ibiza, its type locality, which Cuvier translated as "august" or "venerable".{{cite web | url = https://etyfish.org/perciformes8/ | title = Order Perciformes (Part 8): Suborder Scorpaenoidei: Families Sebastidae, Setarchidae and Neosebastidae | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | editor1= Christopher Scharpf | editor2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | name-list-style = amp |date = 22 May 2021 | access-date = 1 November 2021 | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara}}

The fossil record of rockfish goes back to the Miocene, with unequivocal whole body fossils and otoliths from California and Japan (although fossil otoliths from Belgium, "Sebastes" weileri, may push the record back as far as the early Oligocene).{{cite web | url = https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=35916 | title = Sebastes Cuvier 1829 (ray-finned fish) | access-date = 17 December 2021 | publisher = fossilworks}}

Species

Sebastes contains 109 recognized extant species in this genus are:{{FishBase genus | genus = Sebastes | month= June | year = 2021}}{{Cof genus | genus = Sebastes | access-date = 2 November 2021}}

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
class="wikitable sortable collapsible"
120px	Sebastes aleutianus (D. S. Jordan & Evermann, 1898)	rougheye rockfish	North Pacific (coast of Japan to the Navarin Canyon in the Bering Sea, to the Aleutian Islands, all the way south to San Diego, California)
120px	Sebastes alutus (C. H. Gilbert, 1890) \|Pacific Ocean perch	North Pacific (southern California around the Pacific rim to northern Honshū, Japan, including the Bering Sea.)
120px	Sebastes atrovirens (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	kelp rockfish	Pacific Ocean(coast of California in the United States and Baja California in Mexico)
120px	Sebastes auriculatus (Girard, 1854) \|brown rockfish	Pacific Ocean (Bahia San Hipolito in southern Baja California to Prince William Sound in the northern Gulf of Alaska.)
120px	Sebastes aurora (C. H. Gilbert, 1890) \|aurora rockfish	North Pacific
120px	Sebastes babcocki (W. F. Thompson, 1915) \|redbanded rockfish	Pacific Ocean ( Zhemchug Canyon in the Bering Sea and the Aleutians south to San Diego, California)
	Sebastes baramenuke (Wakiya, 1917) \|	Pacific Ocean ( northern Japan to South Korea)
120px	Sebastes borealis (Barsukov, 1970) \|shortraker rockfish	Pacific Ocean (southeastern Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, to Fort Bragg, California.)
	Sebastes brevispinis (T. H. Bean, 1884) \|silvergray rockfish	Pacific Ocean (Bering Sea coast of Alaska to Baja California)
	Sebastes capensis (J. F. Gmelin, 1789) \|Cape redfish	Western coast of South Africa, Tristan da Cunha and southern South America,
120px	Sebastes carnatus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	gopher rockfish	Pacific Ocean ( Cape Blanco in Oregon, down to Punta San Roque in southern Baja California)
120px	Sebastes caurinus (J. Richardson, 1844) \|copper rockfish	Pacific Ocean (Gulf of Alaska, to the Pacific side of the Baja California peninsula, north of Guerrero Negro.)
120px	Sebastes cheni (Barsukov, 1988) \|Japanese white seaperch or Japanese blue seaperch	Northwest Pacific
120px	Sebastes chlorostictus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880) \|greenspotted rockfish	Eastern Pacific.
120px	Sebastes chrysomelas (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1881) \|black-and-yellow rockfish	Pacific Ocean (off California and Baja California.)
	Sebastes ciliatus (Tilesius, 1813) \|dusky rockfish	Pacific Ocean ( Bering Sea near British Columbia, in the Gulf of Alaska, and in the depths of the Aleutian Islands.)
120px	Sebastes constellatus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880) \|starry rockfish	Pacific Ocean(California and Baja California. )
	Sebastes cortezi (Beebe & Tee-Van, 1938) \|Cortez rockfish	Pacific Ocean ( Gulf of California along the coast of Baja California, Mexico.)
	Sebastes crameri (D. S. Jordan, 1897)	darkblotched rockfish	Pacific Ocean (southeast of Zhemchug Canyon in the Bering Sea to Santa Catalina Island, California)
120px	Sebastes dallii (C. H. Eigenmann & Beeson, 1894) \|calico rockfish	Eastern central Pacific.
120px	Sebastes diaconus (Frable, D. W. Wagman, Frierson, A. Aguilar & Sidlauskas, 2015) \|deacon rockfish{{cite journal \| last1=Frable \| first1=B.W. \| last2=Wagman \| first2=D.W. \| last3=Frierson \| first3=T.N. \| last4=Aguilar \| first4=A. \| last5=Sidlauskas \| first5=B.L. \| year = 2015 \| title = A new species of Sebastes (Scorpaeniformes: Sebastidae) from the northeastern Pacific, with a redescription of the blue rockfish, S. mystinus (Jordan and Gilbert, 1881) \| journal = Fishery Bulletin \| volume = 113 \| issue = 4 \|pages = 355–377 \| url = http://fishbull.noaa.gov/1134/frable.pdf \| doi=10.7755/fb.113.4.1\| doi-access = free }}	Northern California to southern British Columbia.
120px	Sebastes diploproa (C. H. Gilbert, 1890)	splitnose rockfish	Northeast Pacific
120px	Sebastes elongatus (Ayres, 1859) \|greenstriped rockfish	Northeast Pacific
	Sebastes emphaeus (Starks, 1911)	Puget Sound rockfish	Pacific Ocean (Kenai Peninsula, Alaska to northern California)
120px	Sebastes ensifer (L. C. Chen, 1971) \|swordspine rockfish	Central Pacific
120px	Sebastes entomelas (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	widow rockfish	Western North America from Alaska to Baja California.
	Sebastes eos (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890) \|pink rockfish	Monterey Bay in California, USA to central Baja California, Mexico
	Sebastes exsul (L. C. Chen, 1971) \|buccaneer rockfish	Central Pacific: western Gulf of California.
120px	Sebastes fasciatus (D. H. Storer (fr), 1854) \|Acadian redfish	Northwestern Atlantic Ocean and its range extends from Virginia, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia, western Greenland and Iceland
120px	Sebastes flammeus (D. S. Jordan & Starks, 1904) \|	Northwest Pacific.
120px	Sebastes flavidus (Ayres, 1862) \|Yellowtail rockfish	San Diego, California, to Kodiak Island, Alaska
	Sebastes gilli (R. S. Eigenmann, 1891) \|Bronzespotted rockfish	Monterey Bay in California, USA to northern Baja California, Mexico.
	Sebastes glaucus (Hilgendorf, 1880) \|Gray rockfish	Northwest Pacific
120px	Sebastes goodei (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890) \|chilipepper rockfish	Western North America from Baja California to Vancouver.
120px	Sebastes helvomaculatus (Ayres, 1859 )	rosethorn rockfish	Eastern Pacific.
120px	Sebastes hopkinsi (Cramer, 1895) \|squarespot rockfish	Eastern Pacific.
120px	Sebastes hubbsi (Matsubara, 1937) \|	Northwest Pacific
	Sebastes ijimae (D. S. Jordan & Metz, 1913) \|	Japan and South Korea.
120px	Sebastes inermis (G. Cuvier, 1829) \|Japanese red seaperch	Coasts of Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
	Sebastes iracundus (D. S. Jordan & Starks, 1904)		Northwest Pacific.
	Sebastes itinus (D. S. Jordan & Starks, 1904) \|	Japan.
120px	Sebastes jordani (C. H. Gilbert, 1896) \|shortbelly rockfish	Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada to northern Baja California, Mexico
120px	Sebastes joyneri (Günther, 1878) \|Togot seaperch, or offshore seaperch	Japan and Korea
	Sebastes kiyomatsui (Y. Kai & Nakabo, 2004) \|	Japan.
	Sebastes koreanus (I. S. Kim & W. O. Lee, 1994) \|	Korea.
	Sebastes lentiginosus (L. C. Chen, 1971) \|freckled rockfish	Santa Catalina Island in southern California, USA to northern Baja California
120px	Sebastes levis (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1889)	cowcod	Southern California
	Sebastes longispinis (Matsubara, 1934)		Japan and South Korea.
	Sebastes macdonaldi (C. H. Eigenmann & Beeson, 1893)	Mexican rockfish	California, USA to southern Baja California, Mexico and the Gulf of California
120px	Sebastes maliger (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	quillback rockfish	Pacific coast from the Gulf of Alaska to the northern Channel Islands of Southern California.
	Sebastes matsubarai (Hilgendorf, 1880) \|	Northern Japan.
120px	Sebastes melanops (Girard, 1856 )	black rockfish	Oregon, California, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska
	Sebastes melanosema (R. N. Lea & Fitch, 1979) \|semaphore rockfish	Southern California, USA to central Baja California, Mexico.
120px	Sebastes melanostictus (Matsubara, 1934) \|blackspotted rockfish	North Pacific.
	Sebastes melanostomus (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890) \|blackgill rockfish	Washington, USA to central Baja California, Mexico.
120px	Sebastes mentella (Travin, 1951) \|deepwater redfish	North Atlantic
120px	Sebastes miniatus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	vermilion rockfish	North America from Baja California to Alaska.
	Sebastes minor (Barsukov, 1972) \|	Hokkaido, Japan to Sakhalin, Primorskii Krai, and the southern Kuril Islands.
	Sebastes moseri (Eitner, 1999) \|whitespeckled rockfish	Northeast Pacific.
120px	Sebastes mystinus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1881)	blue rockfish	northeastern Pacific Ocean, ranging from northern Baja California to central Oregon.
120px	Sebastes nebulosus (Ayres, 1854 )	China rockfish	Kachemak Bay in the northern Gulf of Alaska to Redondo Beach and San Nicolas Island in southern California.
120px	Sebastes nigrocinctus (Ayres, 1859) \|tiger rockfish	Pacific Ocean off Kodiak Island, and from Prince William Sound, Alaska, south to Point Buchon, central California.
	Sebastes nivosus (Hilgendorf, 1880) \|
120px	Sebastes norvegicus (Ascanius, 1772) \|golden redfish	North Atlantic.
	Sebastes notius (L. C. Che, 1971) \|	Guadalupe Island, Mexico.
	Sebastes nudus (Matsubara, 1943)		Japan and South Korea.
120px	Sebastes oblongus (Günther, 1877)		Japan and South Korea.
	Sebastes oculatus (Valenciennes, 1833) \|Patagonian redfish	Southeast Pacific and Southwest Atlantic: Chile, Argentina, and the Falkland Islands.
120px	Sebastes ovalis (Ayres, 1862)	speckled rockfish	Eastern Pacific
	Sebastes owstoni (D. S. Jordan & W. F. Thompson, 1914)	Japanese yellow seaperch	Japan to Primorskii Krai, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the North Korea
120px	Sebastes pachycephalus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843) \|	Northwest Pacific
120px	Sebastes paucispinis (Ayres, 1854) \|Bocaccio rockfish	Stepovak Bay, Alaska to central Baja California
	Sebastes peduncularis (L. C. Chen, 1975) \|	Eastern Central Pacific.
	Sebastes phillipsi (Fitch, 1964)	chameleon rockfish	Monterey Bay to Newport Beach in southern California, USA.
120px	Sebastes pinniger (T. N. Gill, 1864) \|canary rockfish	south of Shelikof Strait in the eastern Gulf of Alaska to Punta Colonet in northern Baja California.
120px	Sebastes polyspinis (Taranetz & Moiseev, 1933)	northern rockfish	North Pacific.
	Sebastes proriger (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	redstripe rockfish	Bering Sea and Amchitka Island in the Aleutian chain to San Diego, California
120px	Sebastes rastrelliger (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880) \|grass rockfish	Eastern Pacific
120px	Sebastes reedi (Westrheim & Tsuyuki, 1967) \|yellowmouth rockfish	Eastern Pacific.
120px	Sebastes rosaceus (Ayres, 1854 )	rosy rockfish	Eastern Pacific
	Sebastes rosenblatti (L. C. Chen, 1971) \|greenblotched rockfish	San Francisco in California, USA to central Baja California, Mexico.
120px	Sebastes ruberrimus (Cramer, 1895) \|yelloweye rockfish	East Pacific and range from Baja California to Dutch harbor in Alaska
120px	Sebastes rubrivinctus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880) \|flag rockfish	California and Baja California
	Sebastes rufinanus (R. N. Lea & Fitch, 1972) \|dwarf red rockfish	eastern central Pacific, especially around San Clemente Island off the coast of southern California
	Sebastes rufus (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890) \|bank rockfish	Fort Bragg in northern California, USA to central Baja California and Guadalupe Island (off northern central Baja California) in Mexico.
	Sebastes saxicola (C. H. Gilbert, 1890)	stripetail rockfish	Yakutat Bay, Alaska to Rompiente Point, Baja California, Mexico.
120px	Sebastes schlegelii (Hilgendorf, 1880 )	Korean rockfish	Northern Asia.
	Sebastes scythropus (D. S. Jordan & Snyder, 1900) \|	Japan.
120px	Sebastes semicinctus (C. H. Gilbert, 1897) \|halfbanded rockfish	Eastern Central Pacific
120px	Sebastes serranoides (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890) \|olive rockfish	Eastern Pacific.
120px	Sebastes serriceps (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	treefish	eastern Pacific Ocean with a range from San Francisco, California to central Baja California, Mexico.
	Sebastes simulator (L. C. Chen, 1971 )	pinkrose rockfish	San Pedro in southern California, USA to Guadalupe Island (off northern central Baja California) in Mexico.
	Sebastes sinensis (C. H. Gilbert, 1890)	blackmouth rockfish	Gulf of California.
	Sebastes spinorbis (L. C. Chen, 1975)		Eastern Central Pacific.
120px	Sebastes steindachneri (Hilgendorf, 1880)		Northern Japan to the southern Kuril Islands, the northern Sea of Japan, and the Sea of Okhotsk. Reported from South Korea
120px	Sebastes taczanowskii (Steindachner, 1880) \|white-edged rockfish	Northwest Pacific coast
120px	Sebastes thompsoni (D. S. Jordan & C. L. Hubbs, 1925) \|	Northern Japan
120px	Sebastes trivittatus (Hilgendorf, 1880)	\|threestripe rockfish	Northwest Pacific\|Japan and Korea.
	Sebastes umbrosus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1882) \|honeycomb rockfish	Point Pinos, Monterey County in central California, USA to southern central Baja California, Mexico.
	Sebastes variabilis (Pallas, 1814)	light dusky rockfish	Japan, east coast of Kamchatka to Cape Ol'utorskii in western Bering Sea, along the Aleutian Islands in the eastern Bering Sea, through the Gulf of Alaska south to Johnstone Strait, British Columbia and to central Oregon.
	Sebastes variegatus (Quast, 1971) \|harlequin rockfish	Bowers Bank and Petrel Bank in the Aleutian chain to Newport, Oregon, USA.
	Sebastes varispinis (L. C. Chen, 1975)		Eastern Central Pacific.
120px	Sebastes ventricosus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843 )	Japanese black seaperch	Northwest Pacific
120px	Sebastes viviparus (Krøyer, 1845)	Norway redfish	Norwegian coast from Kattegat to Tanafjord in Finnmark, rare off Bear Island, northern part of North Sea, around Shetland Islands, Scotland, northern England, Wales and Ireland, rare in the English Channel; Rockall Bank, common around Faroes and Iceland; sporadic off East Greenland.
120px	Sebastes vulpes (Döderlein (de), 1884) \|fox jacopever	Japan and Korea.
	Sebastes wakiyai (Matsubara, 1934)		Japan and South Korea
120px	Sebastes wilsoni (C. H. Gilbert, 1915)	pygmy rockfish	East Pacific, for the Gulf of Alaska to Baja California, Mexico.
120px	Sebastes zacentrus (C. H. Gilbert, 1890)	sharpchin rockfish	Semisopochnoi Island in the Aleutian chain to San Diego, California, USA.
120px	Sebastes zonatus (L. C. Chen & Barsukov, 1976) \|	Japan and South Korea

Characteristics

Sebastes species have bodies which vary from elongate to deep, and which may be moderately to highly compressed with a comparatively large head. Their eyes vary from large to small. They may have spines on the head or these may be absent, if spines are present, these can be small and weak or robust and there can be up to 8 of them. They lack a spiny horizontal ridge below the eye. The jaws have many small conical teeth and there are teeth on the roof of the mouth. The single dorsal fin is typically strongly incised at the posterior of the spiny portion which contains 12–15 robust, venom-bearing spines and to the rear of these are 9–16 soft rays, The anal fin has 2–4 spines and 6 to 11 soft rays. There is a spine in each of the pelvic fins as well as 5 soft rays and these are placed under the pectoral fins. The pectoral fins are large and may be rounded or pointed in shape with 14–22 soft rays, the longest being the central rays. The caudal fin is straight to slightly concave. The lateral line may have pored or tubed scales.{{cite web | url = https://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/sftep/en/thefishes/taxon/5294 | title = Sebastes | access-date = 1 November 2021 | work = Shorefishes of the Eastern Pacific online information system | publisher = Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute }} They vary in size from a maximum total length of {{cvt|13.7|cm}} in S. koreanus to {{cvt|108|cm}} in S. borealis.

Distribution

Sebastes rockfish are found in the temperate North and South Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Rockfish range from the intertidal zone to almost {{convert|3000|m|ft|abbr=on}} deep, usually living benthically on various substrates, often, as the name suggests, around rock outcrops.

Biology

Sebastes rockfish may be long-lived, amongst the longest-living fish on earth, with several species known to surpass 100 years of age, and a maximum reported age of 205 years for S. aleutianus.{{cite journal |last1=Cailliet |first1=G.M. |last2=Andrews |first2=A.H. |last3=Burton |first3=E.J. |last4=Watters |first4=D.L. |last5=Kline |first5=D.E. |last6=Ferry-Graham |first6=L.A. |year=2001 |title=Age determination and validation studies of marine fishes: do deep-dwellers live longer? |journal=Experimental Gerontology |volume=36 |pages=739–764 |issue=4–6 |doi=10.1016/s0531-5565(00)00239-4 |pmid=11295512|s2cid=42894988 }}

Ecotoxicology, radioecology

Like all carnivores, these fish can bioaccumulate some pollutants or radionuclides such as cesium. Highly radioactive rockfish have been caught in a port near Fukushima city, Japan, not far from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, nearly 2 years after the nuclear disaster (ex: 107000 Bq/kg (2013-02-12); 116000 Bq/kg (2013-02-13) and 132000Bq/kg (2013-02-13), respectively 1070, 1160, and 1320 times more than the maximum allowed by Japanese authorities (as updated on April 1, 2012)TEPCO (2013): Nuclide Analysis Results of Fish and Shellfish (The Ocean Area Within 20km Radius of Fukushima Daiichi NPS <1/13>.

Fisheries

Sebastes rockfish are important sport and commercial fish, and many species have been overfished. As a result, seasons are tightly controlled in many areas. Sebastes species are sometimes fraudulently substituted for the more expensive northern red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus).{{cite web|url=https://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodScienceResearch/RFE/ucm071528.htm|title=Regulatory Fish Encyclopedia|publisher=U.S. Food and Drug Administration}}

References

Category:Sebastini

Category:Ray-finned fish genera

Category:Game fish

Category:Negligibly senescent organisms

Category:Extant Rupelian first appearances

Category:Taxa named by Georges Cuvier

Category:Rupelian genus first appearances