The gopher rockfish (''Sebastes carnatus''), also known as the gopher sea perch, 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 eastern

Pacific 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 ...

, primarily off

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 ...

Taxonomy

The gopher rockfish was originally described in 1880 as ''Sebastichthys carnatus'' by the American ichthyologists

David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Univer ...

and

Charles Henry Gilbert Charles Henry Gilbert (December 5, 1859 in Rockford, Illinois – April 20, 1928 in Palo Alto, California) was a pioneer ichthyologist and Fisheries science, fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western Unit ...

with the type locality given as the

Monterey Bay, California Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by a ...

. 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 ...

''Pteropodus''. The specific name ''carnatus'' means "fleshy" or "flesh-colored", alluding to the background color of this fish.

Description

The gopher rockfish is a deep, stout bodied fish with a steep dorsal profile. The body is as deep as 34% to 38% of its

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

. They have many spines on the head and body. The overall color is dark brown, black, and greenish fading to reddish brown on the belly. There is a row of flesh-colored or whitish spotting and blotches on their back reaching up to and onto the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

and irregular pale patches on their flanks. There is a dark stripe running rearwards from the eye and another on the upper jaw. The head is of average length for this genus and has a short snout with a small terminal mouth and large eyes which bulge over the dorsal profile of the head. The

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

is truncate. The dorsal fin has 13 spines and 12 to 14 rays while the

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

has 3 spines and 5 to 7 soft rays. This species grows to a maximum

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

of .

Distribution and habitat

Gopher rockfish are found in the northeastern Pacific Ocean off the Western coast of North America. They are known from as far north as Cape Blanco in

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 ...

, down to Punta San Roque in southern

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

. They are commonest between northern Baja California and

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

. It is a

demersal The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of ...

species that is encountered as solitary and highly territorial individuals with nearby shelters on rock structures or within

kelp forest Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp, which covers a large part of the world's coastlines. Smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds. They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on Ea ...

s at depths from .

Biology

The gopher rockfish is a

territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

species which defends a home territory on the seabed excluding other rockfish. It is a

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

fish, spending the day sheltering in cavities and crevices. They leave their shelter ar dusk to forage. The juveniles feed on planktonic crustaceans while the adults prey on

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

brittle star Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomo ...

s, crabs, shrimp and

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class (biology), class of generally marine invertebrate, marine annelid worms, common name, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that ...

s. They also eat smaller fish such as juvenile rockfish, particularly blue rockfish (''Sebastes mystinus''),

sculpin A sculpin is a type of fish that belongs to the superfamily Cottoidea in the order Scorpaeniformes.Kane, E. A. and T. E. Higham. (2012)Life in the flow lane: differences in pectoral fin morphology suggest transitions in station-holding demand a ...

s, juvenile

surfperch The surfperches are a family of perciform fishes, the Embiotocidae. They are mainly found in northeast Pacific Ocean (as far south as Baja California), but a few species (genera '' Ditrema'' and '' Neoditrema'') are found in the northwest Pacifi ...

, kelpfishes, and plainfin midshipman (''Porichthys notatus''). This is an oviparous species in which a female can lay 175,000 to 425,000 pelagic eggs. They are known to live for up to 30 years.

Genetics

A PCR-RFLP genetic sex marker has been identified for gopher rockfish, which can successfully distinguish males and females. The marker potentially also works in the closely related black-and-yellow rockfish, but it does not seem to successfully distinguish males and females in various other rockfish species.

References

* * Milton S. Love, Mary Yoklavich, Lyman K. Thorsteinson, (2002), ''The Rockfishes of the Northeast Pacific'', University of California Press, pp. 140–143 * Shawn Narum, Vincent Buonaccorsi, Carol Kimbrell, and Russell Vetter. (2004). Genetic Divergence between Gopher Rockfish (''Sebastes carnatus'') and Black and Yellow Rockfish (''Sebastes chrysomelas''). ''Copeia'', 4, pp. 926–931. {{Taxonbar, from=Q2717740

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 ...

Taxa named by David Starr Jordan Taxa named by Charles Henry Gilbert Fauna of California Western North American coastal fauna