Operation Babyfish: The Search for Itsy Bitsy Rockfish
salish sea wild
Rockfish are the Salish Sea’s most colorful family of fish, and some can live more than 150 years! But despite their super-longevity genes and venomous spines, a number of our local rockfish are in deep trouble. Join SeaDoc’s dive team as we visit with some of our favorite species and search for their elusive little/itsy bitsy young in order to find out what goes into fostering a rockfish baby boom.
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Rockfish fans and fishwatchers interested in all species should visit REEF.org and sign up for a free membership. The REEF Environmental Education Foundation allows all divers and snorkelers to become citizen scientists by doing fish and invertebrate surveys wherever they go. The REEF site also has data on all the species of fish encountered at dive sites around the world.
know your local rockfish
Can you tell a Copper from a Quillback or a Yellow Eye from a Yellowtail? Here’s a terrific underwater guide to rockfish from Emerald Diving, and one from WDFW.
Looking for more baby pictures? Check out this awwww-some young-of-the-year rockfish guide for Citizen Science divers.
All you’ve ever wanted to know about Puget Sound rockfish ecology.
SCUBA DIVERS
To join Operation Babyfish or learn more about the research, dive into Paua Marine Research Group’s web resources and download their young-of-the-year survey guide.
RECREATIONAL FISHERS
Thank you for helping to recover rockfish! Keep up to date on fishing regulations for Washington State and British Columbia, and check out this great animated video that explains why you should always carry a descender device in case you accidentally hook a rockfish.
Read how recreational fishers and divers worked with scientists on a rockfish research project that led to the first delisting of a marine fish species from the Endangered Species Act!
ROCKFISH WOW!
Cutting-edge research reveals how some rockfish can live to be 200 years old. And how that might lead to benefits for humans.
How do we know yelloweye rockfish can have 3 million babies? Some very cool egg-counting research.