The canary rockfish (''Sebastes pinniger''), also known as the orange rockfish, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

belonging to the subfamily

Sebastinae Sebastinae is a subfamily of marine fish belonging to the family Scorpaenidae in the order Scorpaeniformes. Their common names include rockfishes, rock perches, ocean perches, sea perches, thornyheads, scorpionfishes, sea ruffes and rockcods. D ...

, the rockfishes, part of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Scorpaenidae The Scorpaenidae (also known as scorpionfish) are a family of mostly marine fish that includes many of the world's most venomous species. As their name suggests, scorpionfish have a type of "sting" in the form of sharp spines coated with venom ...

. It is native to the waters of the Pacific Ocean off western North America.

Taxonomy

The canary rockfish was first formally described in 1864 by the American

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

Theodore Gill Theodore Nicholas Gill (March 21, 1837 – September 25, 1914) was an American ichthyologist, mammalogist, malacologist and librarian. Career Born and educated in New York City under private tutors, Gill early showed interest in natural histor ...

with the type locality given as

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Some authorities place this species in the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

''Rosicola''. The specific name ''pinniger'' is a compound of ''pinnis'' which means "fin" and ''iger'' meaning "to bear" thought to be a reference to the longer pectoral and ventral fins of this species in comparison to the similar '' S. rosaceus'.

Species description

As the name suggests, this rockfish is notable for a general orange-yellow appearance, consisting of a blotchy orange pattern over a whitish or light gray background. The head has three stripes angling downwards and back, the middle one generally running across the eye, and the other two on each side of the eye. The

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

is in a clear area. The fins are orange, with the pectoral, pelvic, and anal fins somewhat pointed and larger (thus the species epithet ''pinniger'', meaning "I bear a large fin"). Some individuals have dark blotches on the body or dorsal fin. Maximum recorded length if 76 cm (29.6 in).

Genetics

A potential PCR-RFLP genetic sex marker developed for

gopher rockfish The gopher rockfish (''Sebastes carnatus''), also known as the gopher sea perch, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Sebastinae, the rockfishes, part of the family Scorpaenidae. It is found in the eastern Pacific, pr ...

does not successfully distinguish male and female canary rockfish.

Ecology and conservation status

Young canaries live in relatively shallow water, moving to deeper water as they mature. Adults are mostly found at depths of 80–200 meters (with two recorded at 838 meters), tending to collect in groups around pinnacles and similar high-relief rock formations, especially where the current is strong. Some off

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

have been reported living over flat rock and mud-boulder bottoms. They may move considerable distances; one individual covered 700 km in four years after being tagged and released. Juveniles feed on small crustacea such as

krill Krill are small crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, and are found in all the world's oceans. The name "krill" comes from the Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in n ...

larvae (and eggs),

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

s and

amphipod Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...

s, while adults eat krill and small fishes. They have been an important commercial species since at least the early 1880s, with

fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

off

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

state. They are caught in

trawling Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...

and hook and line operations, along with a variety of other fish such as yellowtail,

lingcod The lingcod or ling cod (''Ophiodon elongatus''), also known as the buffalo cod or cultus cod, is a fish of the greenling family Hexagrammidae. It is the only extant member of the genus ''Ophiodon. ''A slightly larger, extinct species, '' Ophi ...

, and other rockfishes. The population on the

U.S. West Coast The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

were declared

overfished Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in the ...

in 2000 and a recovery plan was implemented in 2001. This stock was declared rebuilt in 2015. In 2007, the

National Marine Fisheries Service The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the stew ...

(NMFS) received a petition to list a

distinct population segment {{no footnotes, date=February 2018 A distinct population segment (DPS) is the smallest division of a taxonomic species permitted to be protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. ''Species'', as defined in the Act for listing purposes, is a t ...

(DPS) of canary rockfish, and four other rockfishes, in

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

, as an endangered or threatened species under the

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...

). (ESA). NMFS found that this petition presented enough information to warrant conducting a status review of the species. Based on the status review NMFS proposed listing this species as threatened in 2009. After a later review that included new genetic analyses, a final listing decision was made in January 2017:

References

* * * Milton S. Love, Mary Yoklavich, Lyman K. Thorsteinson, (2002), ''The Rockfishes of the Northeast Pacific'', University of California Press, pp. 234–236 *
National Marine Fisheries Service canary rockfish webpage
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2637006 Sebastes Taxa named by Theodore Gill Fish described in 1864