Publication Date:
2021-06-28
Description:
The widespread and commercially important rougheye rockfish, Sebastes aleutianus (Jordan and Evermann, 1898), has been considered a single variable species, with light- and dark-colored forms, found on the outer continental shelfand upper slope of the North Pacific Ocean. Genetic analysis of 124 specimens verified the presence of two species in new specimens collected from Alaska to Oregon, and the two species were analyzed for distinguishing colorpatterns and morphological characters. Characters distinguishing the two were extended to an analysis of215 additional formalin-fixed specimens representing their geographic ranges. Sebastes aleutianus is pale, often has dark mottling on the dorsum in diffuse bands, and does not have distinct dark spots on the spinous dorsal fin; it ranges from the eastern Aleutian Islands and southeasternBering Sea to California. Sebastes melanostictus (Matsubara, 1934), the blackspotted rockfish, ranges fromcentral Japan, through the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea, to southern California. It is darker overall and spotting is nearly always present on the spinous dorsal fin. Sebastesswifti (Evermann and Goldsborough, 1907) is a synonym of S. aleutianus; S. kawaradae (Matsubara, 1934) is a synonym of S. melanostictus. The subgenus Zalopyr is restricted to S. aleutianus and S. melanostictus. Nomenclatural synonymies, diagnoses, descriptions, and distributions are provided for each species.
Keywords:
Biology
;
Ecology
;
Fisheries
Repository Name:
AquaDocs
Type:
article
,
TRUE
Format:
application/pdf
Format:
application/pdf
Format:
111-134
