Species and Habitat Outlines

Quillback Rockfish
TAXONOMY

Phylum: Chordata
Class: Osteichthyes
Order: Scorpaeniformes
Family: Scorpaenidae

 

ECOLOGICAL DATA

Distribution: common in shallow offshore, exposed bays and semi-protected waterways.

Habitat: adults usually inhabit rock pavement around boulder fields or unconsolidated coarse sediments that border rocky reefs, usually in deeper water than copper rockfish; mate from Oct to Jan but larvae released between Apr and May; juveniles rear in small groups in shallow nearshore during summer and fall; juveniles less than 15 cm may associate with cloud sponges on rocky reefs; adults are demersal and usually solitary; adults do not appear to make extensive migrations.

Tidal elevation: offshore to depths of 275 m; inshore tend to be above 40-50 m.

Food: juveniles (less than 12 cm) prey includes shrimp, crabs, calanoid copepods, euphausids, and gammarid amphipods; adults prey on shrimp, crabs, snails, amphipods and fish (e.g. herring and sand lance).

Predators: fish, e.g. lingcod and yelloweye rockfish.

GROWTH RATE

Slow; males sexually mature at 12 yr, approx. 31 cm, and females at 14 yr or 32 cm; maximum size is 61 cm and may live to over 32 years of age.

 

FISHERY

Important commercial species; 1986 total rockfish commercial catch was 18,781 t valued at $11.8 million; sportfishing limit is 8.

REFERENCES

Hart, J.L. 1973. Pacific fishes of Canada. Fish. Res. Board Can. Bull 180: 424-425.

Hueckel, G.J., and R.M. Buckley. 1987. The influence of prey communities on fish assemblages on artificial reefs in Puget Sound, Washington. Environ. Biol. Fishes 19: 195-214.

Lamb, A., and P. Edgell. 1986. Coastal fishes of the Pacific Northwest. Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, B.C.: 104.

Nagetagaal, D. 1985. Rockfish. Underwater World. Fish. Oceans Can., Ottawa: 5 p.

Richards, L.J. 1986. Depth and habitat characteristics of three species of rockfish (Sebastes) in British Columbia: observations from the submersible PISCES IV. Environ. Biol. Fishes 17: 13-21.

Richards, L.J. 1987. Copper rockfish (Sebastes caurinus) and quillback rockfish (Sebastes maliger) habitat in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia. Can. J. Zool. 65: 3188-3191.

Rosenthal, R.J., L. Haldorson, L.J. Fild, V. Moran-O'Connell, M.G. LaRiviere, J. Underwood, and M.C. Murphy. 1982. Inshore and shallow offshore bottomfish resources in the southeastern Gulf of Alaska (1981-1982). Alas. Dep. Fish Game. Commer. Fish. Div., Juneau: 166 p.

 

 

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