Yelloweye rockfish

Yelloweye rockfish
Typical adult
Typical young
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Scorpaeniformes
Family: Scorpaenidae
Genus: Sebastes
Species:
S. ruberrimus
Binomial name
Sebastes ruberrimus
(Cramer, 1895)
Synonyms[1]
  • Sebastolobus ruberrimus Cramer, 1895
  • Sebastodes ruberrimus (Cramer, 1895)
  • Sebastes ruber Ayres, 1854

The yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Sebastinae, the rockfishes, part of the family Scorpaenidae and one of the biggest members of the genus Sebastes. Its name derives from its coloration. It is also locally known as "red snapper",[2][3] not to be confused with the warm-water Atlantic species Lutjanus campechanus that formally carries the name red snapper. The yelloweye is one of the world's longest-lived fish species, and is cited to live to a maximum of 114 to 120 years of age. As they grow older, they change in color, from reddish in youth, to bright orange in adulthood, to pale yellow in old age. Yelloweye live in rocky areas and feed on small fish and other rockfish. They reside in the East Pacific and range from Baja California to Dutch Harbor in Alaska.

Yelloweye rockfish are prized for their meat, and were declared overfished in 2002, at which time a survey determined that their population, which had been in decline since the 1980s, was just 7–13% of numbers before commercial fishing of the species began. Because of the slow reproductive age of the species, recovery of the species is difficult, and liable to last decades, even with the harshest restrictions; Washington state, for example, maintains a quota of under 1000 individuals per year. The stock in inside waters is listed as "threatened" while the outside stock was declared overfished and is subject to a rebuilding plan.

  1. ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Sebastes ruberrimus". FishBase. August 2021 version.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference orioncharters-rockfish was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference wdfw-2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).