355 
NOAA 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
Fishery Bulletin 
established 1881 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
A new species of Sebastes (Scorpaeniformes: 
Sebastidae) from the northeastern Pacific, with 
a redescription of the blue rockfish, S. mystinus 
(Jordan and Gilbert, 1881 ) 
Email address for contact author: ben.frable@oregonstate.edu 
Abstract— The d iverse predatory 
rockfishes ( Sebastes spp. ) support 
extensive commercial fisheries in 
the northeastern Pacific. Although 
106 species of Sebastes are consid- 
ered valid, many of the ecological, 
geographical, and morphological 
boundaries separating them lack 
clarity. We clarify one such boundary 
by separating the blue rockfish Se- 
bastes mystinus (Jordan and Gilbert, 
1881) into 2 species on the basis of 
molecular and morphological data. 
We redescribe S. mystinus, desig- 
nate a lectotype, and describe the 
deacon rockfish, Sebastes diaconus 
n. sp. Aside from its unambiguous 
distinction at 6 microsatellite loci, 
the new species is most easily dif- 
ferentiated from S', mystinus by its 
possession of a solid in contrast with 
a blotched color pattern. Sebastes 
diaconus also possesses a prominent 
symphyseal knob versus a reduced 
or absent knob, a flat rather than 
rounded ventrum, and longer first 
and second anal-fin spines. Sebastes 
diaconus occurs from central Cali- 
fornia northward to British Colum- 
bia, Canada, and S. mystinus occurs 
from northern Oregon south to Baja 
California Sur, Mexico, indicating a 
broad region of sympatry in Oregon 
and northern California. Further 
collection and study are necessary 
to clarify distributional boundaries 
and to understand the ecology and 
mechanisms of segregation for this 
species. Additionally, fisheries as- 
sessments will need revision to ac- 
count for the longstanding conflation 
of these 2 species. 
Manuscript submitted 30 May 2014. 
Manuscript accepted 10 June 2015. 
Fish. Bull. 113:355-377 (2015) 
Online publication date: 9 July 2015. 
doi: 10. 7755/FB. 113.4.1 
http://zoobank.org/References/297ElE76- 
94C2-49B2-9520-A519B80BC99B 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Benjamin W. Frable (contact author ) 1 - 2 
D. Wolfe Wagman 2 
Taylor N. Frierson 2 
Andres Aguilar 3 
Brian L. Sidlauskas 1 
1 Department of Fisheries and Wildlife 
Oregon State University 
104 Nash Hall 
Corvallis, Oregon 97331 
2 Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife 
Marine Resources Program 
2040 SE Marine Science Drive 
Newport, Oregon 97365 
3 Department of Biological Sciences 
California State University, Los Angeles 
5151 State University Drive 
Los Angeles, California 90032 
The rockfish genus Sebastes is one of 
the most diverse and abundant gen- 
era along the Pacific coast of North 
America (Love et ah, 2002). Rockfish 
biology and ecology have been well 
studied because of their commer- 
cial importance, yet some taxonomic 
limits, population boundaries, and 
phylogenetic relationships within Se- 
bastes remain unclear (Hyde and Vet- 
ter, 2007; Orr and Hawkins, 2008) be- 
cause many species are very similar 
and overlap in meristic counts and 
morphometries. As a result, fishery 
managers struggle to correctly iden- 
tify Sebastes species and sometimes 
lack accurate species diagnoses to de- 
termine proper management. 
Several clusters of similar spe- 
cies within Sebastes merit increased 
taxonomic attention. For example, 
the uniformly dark-colored species of 
Sebastes, such as the blue rockfish S. 
mystinus (Jordan and Gilbert, 1881), 
black rockfish S. melanops Girard, 
1856, light dusky rockfish S. variabi- 
lis (Pallas, 1814), and dusky rockfish 
S. ciliatus (Tilesius, 1813), are among 
the most frequently conflated and 
confused when landed in the same 
fishery (Kramer and O’Connell, 1995; 
Orr and Blackburn, 2004). Even 
among brightly colored rockfishes, 
increased study has revealed cryptic 
species. Gharrett et al. (2005) found 
2 genetically distinct forms within 
the rougheye rockfish S. aleutianus 
(Jordan and Evermann, 1898), and 
those forms were later designated as 
the rougheye rockfish S. aleutianus 
and blackspotted rockfish S. mela- 
nostictus (Matsubara, 1934) (Orr 
and Hawkins, 2008). The historical 
concept of the vermilion rockfish S. 
miniatus (Jordan and Gilbert, 1880a) 
was also shown relatively recently to 
