FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 79, NO. 2 



30.1 mm 



65.3mm 



Figure 8. — Pelagic juvenile (30.1 mm) and benthic juvenile (65.3 mm) ofSebastes zacentrus. 



Interorbital space = flat-convex 

 Black blotch at base of spinous dorsal fin = 

 absent. 



Of the 36 Sebastes species off Oregon 

 (Richardson and Laroche 1979), S. zacentrus has 

 the best fit to the above characters. Other species 

 occurring off Oregon w^hich agree with many of 

 these characters are S. brevispinis, S. emphaeus , 

 S. proriger, and S. wilsoni. 



Sebastes emphaeus and S. wilsoni are elimi- 

 nated since they have 39-43 and 38-42 gill rakers, 

 respectively (see Appendix Table 1). Sebastes wil- 

 soni also differs from S. zacentrus in soft anal fin 

 ray count, usually 6 vs. usually 7, respectively (see 

 Appendix Table 1). Sebastes proriger can be elimi- 

 nated based on count frequency distributions (see 

 Appendix Table 1): number of gill rakers on the 



first archx = 38.3 ±0.35 (95% confidence intervals, 

 C. I.) vs. 35.3±0.32 (95% C. I.) for S. zacentrus; 

 diagonal scale rows below the lateral line x = 

 56.0±0.82 (95% C. I.) vs. 50.2 + 0.56 (95% C. I.) for 

 S. zacentrus; lateral line poresx = 47.9±0.93 (95% 

 C.I.) vs. 41.8±0.70 (95% C.I.) for S.zace/i^rMs. Fre- 

 quency distributions for dorsal fin soft rays also 

 differ between S. proriger, 50% ^15 rays, and S. 

 zacentrus, 88% <14 rays. Although S. brevispinis 

 differs considerably from S. zacentrus in body 

 morphology, pigmentation, and relative strength 

 and length of head and fin spines, the fin, scale, 

 and lateral line pore count ranges are reported to 

 overlap (Phillips 1957; Miller and Lea 1972; Hart 

 1973). Since count-frequency data have not been 

 published for S. brevispinis and since we had only 

 four large juvenile and adult specimens available 

 for examination, it was necessary to rely on a 



246 



