Sebastes

Sebastes
Temporal range: 33.9–0 Ma
Early Oligocene to Present[1]
Yelloweye rockfish, Sebastes ruberrimus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Scorpaeniformes
Family: Sebastidae
Genus: Sebastes
Cuvier, 1829
Species

See text.

Sebastes is a genus of fish in the family Sebastidae (though some include this in Scorpaenidae), most of which have the common name of rockfish. Most of the world's almost 110 Sebastes species live in the north Pacific, although two (S. capensis and S. oculatus) live in the south Pacific/Atlantic and four (S. fasciatus, S. marinus, S. mentella and S. viviparus) live in the north Atlantic. The coast off South California is the area of highest rockfish diversity, with 56 species living in the Southern California Bight.

The fossil record of rockfish goes back to the Miocene, from California and Japan (although fossil otoliths from Belgium, "Sebastes" weileri, may push the record back as far as the Oligocene).

Rockfish range from the intertidal zone to almost 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) deep, usually living benthically on various substrates, often (as the name suggests) around rock outcrops. Some rockfish species are very long lived, amongst the longest living fish on earth, with a maximum reported age of 205 years for S. aleutianus (Cailliet et al. 2001).

Rockfish are an important sport and commercial fish, and many species have been overfished. As a result seasons are tightly controlled in many areas.

Species

References

  1. ^ Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: p.560. http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class. Retrieved 2007-12-25. 
Works cited
  • Cailliet, G.M., Andrews, A.H., Burton, E.J., Watters, D.L., Kline, D.E., Ferry-Graham, L.A. (2001). "Age determination and validation studies of marine fishes: do deep-dwellers live longer?". Exp. Gerontol. 36 (4–6): 739–764. doi:10.1016/S0531-5565(00)00239-4. PMID 11295512.