524 



Abstract— Rougheye rockfish (Sebas- 

 tes aleutianus) and shortraker rock- 

 fish [Sebastes borealis) were collected 

 from the Washington coast, the Gulf 

 of Alaska, the southern Bering Sea, 

 and the eastern Kamchatka coast of 

 Russia (areas encompassing most of 

 their geographic distribution) for pop- 

 ulation genetic analyses. Using starch 

 gel electrophoresis, we analyzed 1027 

 rougheye rockfish and 615 shortraker 

 rockfish for variation at 29 protein- 

 coding loci. No genetic heterogeneity 

 was found among shortraker rock- 

 fish throughout the sampled regions, 

 although shortraker in the Aleutian 

 Islands region, captured at deeper 

 depths, were found to be significantly 

 smaller in size than the shortraker 

 caught in shallower waters from 

 Southeast Alaska. Genetic analysis 

 of the rougheye rockfish revealed 

 two evolutionary lineages that exist 

 in sympatry with little or no gene 

 flow between them. When analyzed 

 as two distinct species, neither lin- 

 eage exhibited heterogeneity among 

 regions. Sebastes aleutianus seems to 

 inhabit waters throughout the Gulf 

 of Alaska and more southern waters, 

 whereas S. sp. cf. aleutianus inhab- 

 its waters throughout the Gulf of 

 Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Asia. 

 The distribution of the two rougheye 

 rockfish lineages may be related to 

 depth where they are sympatric. The 

 paler color morph, S. aleutianus, is 

 found more abundantly in shallower 

 waters and the darker color morph, 

 Sebastes sp. cf. aleutianus, inhabits 

 deeper waters. Sebastes sp. cf. aleu- 

 tianus, also exhibited a significantly 

 higher prevalence of two parasites, 

 N. robusta and T. trituba, than did 

 Sebastes aleutianus, in the 2001 

 samples, indicating a possible dif- 

 ference in habitat and (or) resource 

 use between the two lineages. 



Genetic variation of rougheye rockfish 

 (Sebastes aleutianus) and shortraker rockfish 

 (5. borealis) inferred from allozymes 



Sharon L. Hawkins 



Jonathan Heifetz 



Christine M. Kondzela 



John E. Pohl 



Richard L. Wilmot 



Auke Bay Laboratory 



Alaska Fisheries Science Center 



National Marine Fisheries Service 



11305 Glacier Highway 



Juneau, Alaska, 99801-8626 



E-mail address: Sharon Hawkinsia'noaa gov 



Oleg N. Katugin 



Vladimir N. Tuponogov 



Pacific Research Fisheries Centre (TINROCentre) 

 4 Shevchenko Alley 

 Vladivostok 690950, Russia 



Manuscript submitted 24 November 2003 

 to the Scientific Editor's Office. 



Manuscript approved for publication 

 28 March 2005 by the Scientific Editor. 



Fish. Bull. 103:524-535 (2005). 



Information about the biology and 

 population dynamics of rougheye rock- 

 fish (S. aleutianus) and shortraker 

 rockfish (S. borealis) is limited, and 

 uncertainty exists about current stock 

 abundance and long-term productiv- 

 ity. As adults, these two species are 

 similar in appearance, have the same 

 zoogeography, and share the same 

 habitat. They were classified as a 

 single species, S. aleutianus (Jordan 

 and Evermann, 1898), until Barsukov 

 (1970) described S. borealis. Tsuyuki 

 and Westrheim (1970) also described 

 ■S. borealis that same year (initially as 

 S. caenaematicus), using biochemical 

 methods. The distribution of rough- 

 eye rockfish is reported from Japan 

 to southeastern Kamchatka (exclud- 

 ing the Sea of Okhotsk), to Navarin 

 Canyon in the Bering Sea, throughout 

 the Aleutian Islands, and south to San 

 Diego, California (Tokranov and Davy- 

 dov, 1997). Shortraker rockfish has 

 a similar distribution; however, this 

 species is much more abundant than 

 rougheye rockfish in Russia — eastern 

 Russian Sebastes biomass was com- 

 posed of more than 90% shortraker 

 and less than 1% rougheye rockfish 

 for most regions, excepting the Com- 



mander Islands (Tokranov and Davy- 

 dov, 1997). Both species have been 

 reported at depths to 875 m (Allen 

 and Smith. 1988), although longline 

 (Sigler and Zenger 1 ) and trawl surveys 

 (NMFS triennial groundfish survey) 

 indicate they are most abundant on 

 the upper continental slope at 300- 

 400 m depths. Krieger and Ito (1999) 

 found the two species difficult to dis- 

 tinguish visually when viewed from 

 a submersible but believed that the 

 highly sedentary adults of both spe- 

 cies share the same habitat, prefer- 

 ring substrates of sand or mud and 

 frequent boulders and steep slopes. 



Rougheye and shortraker rockfish 

 are highly prized commercially but 

 are particularly sensitive to overex- 

 ploitation because of slow growth, late 

 maturation, and long life spans. Half 

 of rougheye rockfish are mature at 20 



Sigler, M. F., and H. H. Zenger Jr. 1994. 

 Relative abundance of Gulf of Alaska 

 sablefish and other groundfish based on 

 the domestic longline survey, 1989. U. 

 S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo. 

 NMFS-AFSC-40, 79 p. Auke Bay Labo- 

 ratory, 11305 Glacier Hwy., Juneau, AK 

 99801. 



