The redbanded rockfish (''Sebastes babcocki''), also known as the bandit, barber pole, flag rockfish, Spanish flag, Hollywood, convict, and canary, 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 found in the northern Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomy

The redbanded rockfish was first formally described as ''Sebastodes babcocki'' in 1915 by the American

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

William Francis Thompson William Francis Thompson (born St. Cloud, Minnesota 1888, died 7 November 1965) was an American ichthyologist and fisheries scientist. He researched the exploitation and management of the stocks of Pacific halibut for the fisheries department ...

with the type locality given as Middleton Island, Alaska. 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 honours John Pease Babcock who was the first Commissioner of Fisheries for

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, the organisation which published Francis' description.

Description

The redbanded rockfish reaches up to 64 centimeters in length. Its maximum recorded weight is 4.4 kilograms, and the mean weight is roughly 1.3 kilograms.Haigh, R. and P. Starr. (2006)
A review of redbanded rockfish ''Sebastes babcocki'' along the Pacific coast of Canada: biology, distribution, and abundance trends.
Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat. Research Document 2006/073. Fisheries and Oceans, Canada. It is white, pink, or red in color with four vertical red or orange bars,
Alaska Fisheries Science Center. National Marine Fisheries Service. NOAA. the first one running from the front of the dorsal fin to the pectoral fin and the fourth one at the base of the tail. These bars fade as the fish grows larger. The head is spiny. The fins may have darkened edges or a black tinge.

Distribution and habitat

The redbanded rockfish is native to the northern and eastern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. Its distribution extends from the Zhemchug Canyon in the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...

and the

Aleutians The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a chain of 14 large vo ...

south to

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. This

marine fish Saltwater fish, also called marine fish or sea fish, are fish that live in seawater. Saltwater fish can swim and live alone or in a large group called a school. Saltwater fish are very commonly kept in aquariums for entertainment. Many saltwater f ...

lives at ocean depths from 49 to 625 meters, with most between 150 and 350 meters. It can be found on soft seabed, but it also lives on muddy, pebbly, and rocky substrates, sometimes using rocks for cover.

Biology

The redbanded rockfish is a long-lived fish which has been reported to reach 106 years old. The time it takes to reach maturity varies widely, often by geography. A fish off California might be mature at age 3, while an individual off

might take 19 years to mature. Size at maturity varies from 23 to 42 centimeters, with males maturing at smaller sizes than females. It is often solitary but it may join small groups. Like other rockfish, this species is

viviparous Among animals, viviparity is development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. This is opposed to oviparity which is a reproductive mode in which females lay developing eggs that complete their development and hatch externally from the m ...

. The female releases the live young between March and September across the species' range. This fish is host to a number of

parasitic Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has c ...

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, including '' Chondracanthus pinguis'', '' C. triventricosus'', '' Clavella parva'', '' Colobomatus kyphosus'', '' Naobranchia occidentalis'', '' Peniculus asinus'', and '' Neobrachiella robusta''.Bailly, N. (2013)
''Sebastes babcocki''.
In: Froese, R. and D. Pauly, Eds. (2013) FishBase. World Register of Marine Species. Accessed 5 June 2013.

Fisheries

The redbanded rockfish has some importance in

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

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 ...

, particularly in the northern half of its range. In 1995, 280 tons were caught by

longline Long line or longline may refer to: *''Long Line'', an album by Peter Wolf *Long line (topology), or Alexandroff line, a topological space *Long line (telecommunications), a transmission line in a long-distance communications network *Longline fish ...

off British Columbia. Often, though, this fish is taken as

bycatch Bycatch (or by-catch), in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife. Bycatch is either the wrong species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juve ...

during

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 ...

operations targeting other species, such as the

yelloweye rockfish 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 ''Sebastes' ...

(''S. ruberrimus'') and

halibut Halibut is the common name for three flatfish in the genera '' Hippoglossus'' and ''Reinhardtius'' from the family of right-eye flounders and, in some regions, and less commonly, other species of large flatfish. The word is derived from ''h ...

(''Hippoglossus stenolepis''). Bycatch of this species in trawls off the coast of British Columbia well exceeded 1,000 tons in 1992. It has dropped below 300 tons per year since then due to better monitoring.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2527017 Sebastes Viviparous fish Fish described in 1915 Taxa named by William Francis Thompson