FISHERY BULLETIN; VOL, 77, NO 1 



Larvae, including transforming specimens, of .S. 

 pinnigcr in our collections were captured at a wide 

 range of stations from 13 to 306 km offshore. The 

 largest numbers and smallest larvae (<8.8 mm) 

 were taken at stations 83 to 120 km off Newport 

 beyond the continental shelf break. This may 

 partly be a reflection of increased sampling effort 

 in that area. Pelagic juveniles occurred at a simi- 

 lar wide range of stations, mostly beyond the con- 

 tinental shelf Interestingly, 30 specimens, rang- 

 ing in length from 8.9 to 18.6 mm were captured 

 306 km off Coos Bay, Oreg., well beyond the conti- 

 nental shelf Perhaps this wide ranging offshore 

 occurrence of larvae and pelagic juveniles is re- 

 lated to their morphology. The larvae are quite 

 stubby and deep bodied with particularly long 

 head spines, features which could contribute to 

 increased flotation and dispersal by currents. Most 

 specimens were captured in oblique midwater 

 trawl and bongo net tows. Three benthic juveniles 

 were taken close to the coast in depths of 30 to 35 

 m. 



Reported spawning times for S. pinniger are 

 November to March off California (Phillips 1964i 

 and January to March off Oregon, Washington, 

 and British Columbia (Westrheim 1975). Larvae 

 <10 mm were taken March through June, and 

 larger pelagic specimens were taken March 

 through August. The wide range in lengths, 9 to 25 

 mm in March, 7 to 38 mm in April, 8 to 34 mm in 

 May, 9 to 43 mm in June, may be indicative of 

 protracted and variable spawning. Benthic 

 juveniles were taken in June and August. 



Sehastes pinniger is one of the most abundant 

 trawl-caught rockfish species on the continental 

 shelf off Oregon together with S. flavidus and S. 

 entomelas (Snytko and Fadeev 1974). In trawl 

 surveys off Oregon it ranked either first or second 

 only to S. entomelas in biomass over the shelf 

 (Demory et al. 1976). It was one of the major con- 

 tributors to "other rockfish" landings in Oregon 

 during 1963-71 (Niska 1976). Larvae and 

 juveniles were the most numerous in available 

 collections of the three species described in this 

 paper. 



SEBASTES HELVOMACULATUS AYRES 



(Figures 12, 13) 



Literature. — Westrheim etal. (see footnote 9) pre- 

 sented a schematic illustration of a preextrusion 

 larva of S. helvomaeulatus and described the 



pigment pattern in a tabular form. The latter table 

 was also in Westrheim (1975). Preextrusion lar- 

 vae (mean total length =4.1 mm) have a ventral 

 midline row of usually <16 (83"^* of 120 larvae) 

 melanophores which stop short of the anus usually 

 by as much as four myomeres. Pigment is absent 

 from the dorsal midline, the head, nape, and lower 

 jaw, and is usually not in the hypural region. The 

 illustration shows some melanophores over the 

 hindgut and ventrally beneath the yolk sac. Wes- 

 trheim (1975) added that larvae of S. hel- 

 vomaeulatus, along with 10 other species which 

 had been reared for several days, develop pigment 

 spots on the head, nape, and/or lower jaw. 



Identification (Table 10, Appendix Tables 2-6). — 

 Twenty-six specimens of S. helvomaeulatus, 7.7 to 

 183 mm long, were identified. Juveniles were 

 identified using the following combination of 

 characters obtained from specimens examined in 

 this study; 



Gill rakers = 28-31 



Lateral line pores = 35-43 



Pectoral fin rays = 15-17, usually 16 



Anal fin soft rays = 5-6, usually 6 



Dorsal fin soft rays = 12-14, usually 13 



Supraocular spine = present 



Interorbital space = concave. 



Of the Sebastes species occurring off Oregon, S. 

 helvomaeulatus has the best fit to the above 

 characters. Sebastes aurora and S. elongatus also 

 agi'ee with many of these characters, butS. aurora 

 was eliminated since it has 24 to 28 gill rakers and 

 S. elongatus was eliminated since it does not have 

 a supraocular spine. Larval and juvenile speci- 

 mens of S. elongatus identified from our collec- 

 tions are noticeably more slender than specimens 

 of S. helvomaeulatus and also are pigmented dif- 

 ferently. Pigment pattern, body shape, time of oc- 

 currence, and constancy in number of anal fin soft 

 rays and pectoral fin rays helped link together the 

 developmental series. 



Distinguishing Features. — Characters useful in 

 distinguishing the smallest larva of S. hel- 

 vomaeulatus identified, 7.7 mm, are the pig- 

 mented fringes of the pectoral and pelvic fins; the 

 general lack of body pigment; melanophores in- 

 side the tip of the lower jaw; narrow interorbital 

 distance (317f HL); long, deeply serrated, parietal 

 spines (27% HL); and relatively long pectoral fins 



30 



