Sebastes

Sebastes Temporal range: 33.9–0 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Early Oligocene to present
Yelloweye rockfish (S. ruberrimus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Division:	Teleostei
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Scorpaenidae
Subfamily:	Sebastinae
Genus:	Sebastes G. Cuvier, 1829
Type species
Sebastes norvegicus (Ascanius, 1772)
Synonyms
List Acutomentum C. H. 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

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. 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. Other authorities place it in the Perciformes in the suborder Scorpaenoidei.

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".

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).

Species

Sebastes contains 109 recognized extant species:

Subgenus	Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
Zalopyr Jordan & Evermann, 1898		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)
		Sebastes borealis (Barsukov, 1970)	shortraker rockfish	Pacific Ocean (southeastern Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, to Fort Bragg, California)
		Sebastes matsubarai (Hilgendorf, 1880)		Northern Japan
		Sebastes melanostictus (Matsubara, 1934)	blackspotted rockfish	North Pacific
Acutomentum Eigenmann & Beeson, 1893		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)
		Sebastes baramenuke (Wakiya, 1917)		Pacific Ocean ( northern Japan to South Korea)
		Sebastes brevispinis (T. H. Bean, 1884)	silvergray rockfish	Pacific Ocean (Bering Sea coast of Alaska to Baja California)
		Sebastes entomelas (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	widow rockfish	Western North America from Alaska to Baja California
		Sebastes flammeus (D. S. Jordan & Starks, 1904)		Northwest Pacific
		Sebastes hopkinsi (Cramer, 1895)	squarespot rockfish	Eastern Pacific
		Sebastes iracundus (D. S. Jordan & Starks, 1904)		Northwest Pacific
		Sebastes kiyomatsui (Y. Kai & Nakabo, 2004)		Japan
		Sebastes macdonaldi (C. H. Eigenmann & Beeson, 1893)	Mexican rockfish	California, US, to southern Baja California, Mexico and the Gulf of California
		Sebastes minor (Barsukov, 1972)		Hokkaido, Japan to Sakhalin, Primorskii Krai, and the southern Kuril Islands
		Sebastes ovalis (Ayres, 1862)	speckled rockfish	Eastern Pacific
		Sebastes rufus (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890)	bank rockfish	Fort Bragg in northern California, US, to central Baja California and Guadalupe Island (off northern central Baja California) in Mexico
		Sebastes scythropus (D. S. Jordan & Snyder, 1900)		Japan
		Sebastes wakiyai (Matsubara, 1934)		Japan and South Korea
Mebarus Matsubara 1943		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)
		Sebastes cheni (Barsukov, 1988)	Japanese white seaperch or Japanese blue seaperch	Northwest Pacific
		Sebastes inermis (G. Cuvier, 1829)	Japanese red seaperch	Coasts of Japan and the Korean Peninsula
		Sebastes joyneri (Günther, 1878)	Togot seaperch, or offshore seaperch	Japan and Korea
		Sebastes taczanowskii (Steindachner, 1880)	white-edged rockfish	Northwest Pacific coast
		Sebastes thompsoni (D. S. Jordan & C. L. Hubbs, 1925)		Northern Japan
		Sebastes ventricosus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843 )	Japanese black seaperch	Northwest Pacific
Auctospina Eigenmann & Beeson 1893		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)
		Sebastes dallii (C. H. Eigenmann & Beeson, 1894)	calico rockfish	Eastern central Pacific
Eosebastes Jordan & Evermann, 1896		Sebastes aurora (C. H. Gilbert, 1890)	aurora rockfish	North Pacific
		Sebastes crameri (D. S. Jordan, 1897)	darkblotched rockfish	Pacific Ocean (southeast of Zhemchug Canyon in the Bering Sea to Santa Catalina Island, California)
		Sebastes melanosema (R. N. Lea & Fitch, 1979)	semaphore rockfish	Southern California, US, to central Baja California, Mexico
		Sebastes melanostomus (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890)	blackgill rockfish	Washington, US, to central Baja California, Mexico
Rosicola Jordan & Evermann, 1896		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 miniatus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	vermilion rockfish	North America from Baja California to Alaska
		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
Sebastomus Gill, 1864		Sebastes capensis (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)	Cape redfish	Western coast of South Africa, Tristan da Cunha and southern South America
		Sebastes chlorostictus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	greenspotted rockfish	Eastern Pacific
		Sebastes constellatus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	starry rockfish	Pacific Ocean (California and Baja California)
		Sebastes ensifer (L. C. Chen, 1971)	swordspine rockfish	Central Pacific
		Sebastes eos (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890)	pink rockfish	Monterey Bay in California, US, to central Baja California, Mexico
		Sebastes exsul (L. C. Chen, 1971)	buccaneer rockfish	Central Pacific: western Gulf of California
		Sebastes helvomaculatus (Ayres, 1859 )	rosethorn rockfish	Eastern Pacific
		Sebastes lentiginosus (L. C. Chen, 1971)	freckled rockfish	Santa Catalina Island in southern California, US, to northern Baja California
		Sebastes notius (L. C. Che, 1971)		Guadalupe Island, Mexico
		Sebastes oculatus (Valenciennes, 1833)	Patagonian redfish	Southeast Pacific and Southwest Atlantic: Chile, Argentina, and the Falkland Islands
		Sebastes rosaceus (Ayres, 1854 )	rosy rockfish	Eastern Pacific
		Sebastes rosenblatti (L. C. Chen, 1971)	greenblotched rockfish	San Francisco in California, US, to central Baja California, Mexico
		Sebastes serranoides (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890)	olive rockfish	Eastern Pacific
		Sebastes simulator (L. C. Chen, 1971 )	pinkrose rockfish	San Pedro in southern California, US, to Guadalupe Island (off northern central Baja California) in Mexico
		Sebastes spinorbis (L. C. Chen, 1975)		Eastern Central Pacific
		Sebastes umbrosus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1882)	honeycomb rockfish	Point Pinos, Monterey County, in central California, US, to southern central Baja California, Mexico
Pteropodus Eigenmann & Beeson, 1893		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)
		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)
		Sebastes chrysomelas (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1881)	black-and-yellow rockfish	Pacific Ocean (off California and Baja California)
		Sebastes hubbsi (Matsubara, 1937)		Northwest Pacific
		Sebastes longispinis (Matsubara, 1934)		Japan and South Korea
		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 nebulosus (Ayres, 1854 )	China rockfish	Kachemak Bay in the northern Gulf of Alaska to Redondo Beach and San Nicolas Island in southern California
		Sebastes nivosus (Hilgendorf, 1880)
		Sebastes rastrelliger (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	grass rockfish	Eastern Pacific
		Sebastes trivittatus (Hilgendorf, 1880)	threestripe rockfish	Japan and Korea
Sebastosomus Gill, 1864		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)
		Sebastes diaconus (Frable, D. W. Wagman, Frierson, A. Aguilar & Sidlauskas, 2015)	deacon rockfish	Northern California to southern British Columbia
		Sebastes flavidus (Ayres, 1862)	Yellowtail rockfish	San Diego, California, to Kodiak Island, Alaska
		Sebastes melanops (Girard, 1856 )	black rockfish	Oregon, California, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska
		Sebastes mystinus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1881)	blue rockfish	northeastern Pacific Ocean, ranging from northern Baja California to central Oregon
		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
Allosebastes Hubbs, 1951		Sebastes cortezi (Beebe & Tee-Van, 1938)	Cortez rockfish	Pacific Ocean (Gulf of California along the coast of Baja California, Mexico)
		Sebastes diploproa (C. H. Gilbert, 1890)	splitnose rockfish	Northeast Pacific
		Sebastes emphaeus (Starks, 1911)	Puget Sound rockfish	Pacific Ocean (Kenai Peninsula, Alaska to northern California)
		Sebastes peduncularis (L. C. Chen, 1975)		Eastern Central 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
		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 saxicola (C. H. Gilbert, 1890)	stripetail rockfish	Yakutat Bay, Alaska to Rompiente Point, Baja California, Mexico
		Sebastes semicinctus (C. H. Gilbert, 1897)	halfbanded rockfish	Eastern Central Pacific
		Sebastes sinensis (C. H. Gilbert, 1890)	blackmouth rockfish	Gulf of California
		Sebastes variegatus (Quast, 1971)	harlequin rockfish	Bowers Bank and Petrel Bank in the Aleutian chain to Newport, Oregon, US
		Sebastes varispinis (L. C. Chen, 1975)		Eastern Central Pacific
		Sebastes wilsoni (C. H. Gilbert, 1915)	pygmy rockfish	East Pacific, for the Gulf of Alaska to Baja California, Mexico
		Sebastes zacentrus (C. H. Gilbert, 1890)	sharpchin rockfish	Semisopochnoi Island in the Aleutian chain to San Diego, California, US
Hispaniscus Jordan & Evermann, 1896		Sebastes elongatus (Ayres, 1859)	greenstriped rockfish	Northeast Pacific
		Sebastes levis (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1889)	cowcod	Southern California
		Sebastes rubrivinctus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	flag rockfish	California and Baja California
Sebastes Cuvier, 1829		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
		Sebastes mentella (Travin, 1951)	deepwater redfish	North Atlantic
		Sebastes norvegicus (Ascanius, 1772)	golden redfish	North Atlantic
		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
Emmelas Jordan & Evermann 1898		Sebastes glaucus (Hilgendorf, 1880)	Gray rockfish	Northwest Pacific
Incertae sedis		Sebastes gilli (R. S. Eigenmann, 1891)	Bronzespotted rockfish	Monterey Bay in California, US, to northern Baja California, Mexico
		Sebastes koreanus (I. S. Kim & W. O. Lee, 1994)		Korea
		Sebastes moseri (Eitner, 1999)	whitespeckled rockfish	Northeast Pacific
		Sebastes phillipsi (Fitch, 1964)	chameleon rockfish	Monterey Bay to Newport Beach in southern California, US
		Sebastes polyspinis (Taranetz & Moiseev, 1933)	northern rockfish	North Pacific
		Sebastes reedi (Westrheim & Tsuyuki, 1967)	yellowmouth rockfish	Eastern Pacific
Sebastodes Gill, 1861		Sebastes goodei (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890)	chilipepper rockfish	Western North America from Baja California to Vancouver
		Sebastes itinus (D. S. Jordan & Starks, 1904)		Japan
		Sebastes jordani (C. H. Gilbert, 1896)	shortbelly rockfish	Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada to northern Baja California, Mexico
		Sebastes paucispinis (Ayres, 1854)	Bocaccio rockfish	Stepovak Bay, Alaska to central Baja California
		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
Sebastichthys Gill, 1862		Sebastes nigrocinctus (Ayres, 1859)	tiger rockfish	Pacific Ocean off Kodiak Island, and from Prince William Sound, Alaska, south to Point Buchon, central California
Murasoius Matsubara 1943		Sebastes nudus (Matsubara, 1943)		Japan and South Korea
		Sebastes pachycephalus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843)		Northwest Pacific
Takenokius Matsubara, 1943		Sebastes oblongus (Günther, 1877)	Bamboo shoot seaperch, Tortoiseshell perch	Japan and South Korea
Hatumeus Matsubara, 1943		Sebastes owstoni (D. S. Jordan & W. F. Thompson, 1914)	Japanese yellow seaperch	Japan to Primorskii Krai, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the North Korea
Sebastopyr Jordan & Evermann, 1927		Sebastes ruberrimus (Cramer, 1895)	yelloweye rockfish	East Pacific and range from Baja California to Dutch harbor in Alaska
		Sebastes ijimae (D. S. Jordan & Metz, 1913)		Japan and South Korea
Neohispaniscus Matsubara 1943		Sebastes schlegelii (Hilgendorf, 1880 )	Korean rockfish	Northern Asia
		Sebastes vulpes (Döderlein (de), 1884)	fox jacopever	Japan and Korea
		Sebastes zonatus (L. C. Chen & Barsukov, 1976)		Japan and South Korea
Sebastocarus Jordan & Evermann, 1927		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

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. They vary in size from a maximum total length of 13.7 cm (5.4 in) in S. koreanus to 108 cm (43 in) 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 3,000 m (9,800 ft) 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.

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 132000 Bq/kg (2013-02-13), respectively 1070, 1160, and 1320 times more than the maximum allowed by Japanese authorities (as updated on April 1, 2012)

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).

References

External links

• Media related to Sebastes at Wikimedia Commons