Sebastes Temporal range: Early Oligocene to present[1]
Sebastes ruberrimus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Scorpaeniformes
Family:	Scorpaenidae
Tribe:	Sebastini
Genus:	Sebastes G. Cuvier, 1829
Type species
Sebastes norvegicus[2] (Ascanius, 1772)
Synonyms[3]
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 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.^[3] 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.^[4][5] but other authorities place it in the Perciformes in the suborder Scorpaenoidei.^[6]

Some authorities subdivide this large genus into subgenera as follows:^[7]

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”.^[7]

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).^[8]

Species

Sebastes contains 109 recognized extant species in this genus are:^[9][10]

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
	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 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 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 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 aurora (C. H. Gilbert, 1890)	aurora rockfish	North Pacific
	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)
	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,
	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 cheni (Barsukov, 1988)	Japanese white seaperch or Japanese blue seaperch	Northwest Pacific
	Sebastes chlorostictus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	greenspotted rockfish	eastern Pacific.
	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.)
	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)
	Sebastes dallii (C. H. Eigenmann & Beeson, 1894)	calico rockfish	Eastern central Pacific.
	Sebastes diaconus Frable, D. W. Wagman, Frierson, A. Aguilar & Sidlauskas, 2015	deacon rockfish[11]	northern California to southern British Columbia.
	Sebastes diploproa (C. H. Gilbert, 1890)	splitnose rockfish	Northeast Pacific
	Sebastes elongatus Ayres, 1859	greenstriped rockfish	northeast Pacific
	Sebastes emphaeus (Starks, 1911)	Puget Sound rockfish	Pacific Ocean (Kenai Peninsula, Alaska to northern California)
	Sebastes ensifer L. C. Chen, 1971	swordspine rockfish	central Pacific
	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.
	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 flammeus (D. S. Jordan & Starks, 1904)		northwest Pacific.
	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
	Sebastes goodei (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890)	chilipepper rockfish	western North America from Baja California to Vancouver.
	Sebastes helvomaculatus Ayres, 1859	rosethorn rockfish	Eastern Pacific.
	Sebastes hopkinsi (Cramer, 1895)	squarespot rockfish	Eastern Pacific.
	Sebastes hubbsi (Matsubara, 1937)		Northwest Pacific
	Sebastes ijimae (D. S. Jordan & Metz, 1913)		Japan and South Korea.
	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.
	Sebastes jordani (C. H. Gilbert, 1896)	shortbelly rockfish	Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada to northern Baja California, Mexico
	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
	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
	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.
	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.
	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.
	Sebastes mentella Travin, 1951	deepwater redfish	North Atlantic
	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.
	Sebastes mystinus (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1881)	blue rockfish[11]	northeastern Pacific Ocean, ranging from northern Baja California to central Oregon.
	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 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
	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.
	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.
	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
	Sebastes pachycephalus Temminck & Schlegel, 1843		Northwest Pacific
	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.
	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.
	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
	Sebastes rastrelliger (D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1880)	grass rockfish	Eastern Pacific
	Sebastes reedi (Westrheim & Tsuyuki, 1967)	yellowmouth rockfish	Eastern Pacific.
	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.
	Sebastes ruberrimus (Cramer, 1895)	yelloweye rockfish	East Pacific and range from Baja California to Dutch harbor in Alaska
	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.
	Sebastes schlegelii Hilgendorf, 1880	Korean rockfish	northern Asia.
	Sebastes scythropus (D. S. Jordan & Snyder, 1900)		Japan.
	Sebastes semicinctus (C. H. Gilbert, 1897)	halfbanded rockfish	Eastern Central Pacific
	Sebastes serranoides (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1890)	olive rockfish	Eastern Pacific.
	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.
	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
	Sebastes taczanowskii Steindachner, 1880	white-edged rockfish	Northwest Pacific coast
	Sebastes thompsoni (D. S. Jordan & C. L. Hubbs, 1925)		northern Japan
	Sebastes trivittatus Hilgendorf, 1880	threestripe rockfish
	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.
	Sebastes ventricosus Temminck & Schlegel, 1843	Japanese black seaperch	Northwest Pacific
	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.
	Sebastes vulpes Döderlein (de), 1884	fox jacopever	Japan and Korea.
	Sebastes wakiyai (Matsubara, 1934)		Japan and South Korea
	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, USA.
	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 to 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.^[12] 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.^[9]

Distribution

Sebastes rockfish are found in the temperate North and South Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.^[12] 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.^[13]

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.^[13]

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^[14] (2013-02-12); 116000 Bq/kg^[14] (2013-02-13) and 132000Bq/kg^[14] (2013-02-13), respectively 1070, 1160, and 1320 times more than the maximum allowed by Japanese authorities (as updated on April 1, 2012)^[14]

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).^[15]

References

Media related to Sebastes at Wikimedia Commons