Rockfish Facts
Rockfish (Sebastes spp.) are a diverse group of fish that live in nearshore waters where their preferred habitat is in disheveled piles of loose rocks or along the rocky seafloor near the intertidal zone. There are more than 100 species of rockfish around the world and 70 of these species can be found in the Northeast Pacific ocean and at least 28 species here in the Salish Sea. a natural defense against predators, rockfish have venom lining the spiny tissue in the grooves of their dorsal, anal, and pelvic spines.
DID YOU KNOW?
Predators of rockfish are marine birds, marine mammals, and even other fish such as Chinook salmon.
Several rockfish species (Yelloweye and Quillback) are some of the longest-lived species in the Salish Sea
Some species of rockfish choose to spend their entire lives at the same site, finding their home among the rocks. Other species such as the black rockfish (Sebastes melanops) live in schools and follow the food.
Adult rockfish are typically demersal, meaning they live near the bottom of the seafloor, or stay in the midwater between the surface and seafloor. Bottom dwellers find a home among the reef and are usually brightly colored, whereas midwater rockfish live in schools above the reefs and are usually brown, black, or grey.
In the Salish Sea, rockfish populations were heavily overfished in the 1970s and 1980s. Populations of many species of rockfish are still very low today, warranting some species to be listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Photo by David Hicks. Banner photo by Nirupan Nigam.