Ill 
Species of the rougheye rockfish complex: 
resurrection of Sebastes melanostictus 
(Matsubara, 1934) and a redescription of 
Sebastes aleutianus (Jordan and Evermann, 1898) 
(Teleostei: Scorpaeniformes) 
Email address: James.Orr@noaa.gov 
Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering Division 
Alaska Fisheries Science Center 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
7600 Sand Point Way NE 
Seattle, Washington 98115-0070 
Abstract — The widespread and com- 
mercially important rougheye rock- 
fish, Sebastes aleutianus (Jordan 
and Evermann, 1898), has been con- 
sidered a single variable species, 
with light- and dark-colored forms, 
found on the outer continental shelf 
and upper slope of the North Pacific 
Ocean. Genetic analysis of 124 speci- 
mens verified the presence of two spe- 
cies in new specimens collected from 
Alaska to Oregon, and the two species 
were analyzed for distinguishing color 
patterns and morphological charac- 
ters. Characters distinguishing the 
two were extended to an analysis of 
215 additional formalin-fixed speci- 
mens representing their geographic 
ranges. Sebastes aleutianus is pale, 
often has dark mottling on the dorsum 
in diffuse bands, and does not have 
distinct dark spots on the spinous 
dorsal fin; it ranges from the eastern 
Aleutian Islands and southeastern 
Bering Sea to California. Sebastes 
melanostictus (Matsubara, 1934), the 
blackspotted rockfish, ranges from 
central Japan, through the Aleutian 
Islands and Bering Sea, to southern 
California. It is darker overall and 
spotting is nearly always present 
on the spinous dorsal fin. Sebastes 
swifti (Evermann and Goldsborough, 
1907) is a synonym of S. aleutianus', 
S. kawaradae (Matsubara, 1934) is 
a synonym of S. melanostictus. The 
subgenus Zalopyr is restricted to 
S. aleutianus and S. melanostictus. 
Nomenclatural synonymies, diagno- 
ses, descriptions, and distributions 
are provided for each species. 
Manuscript submitted 20 September 2007. 
Manuscript accepted 20 November 2007. 
Fish. Bull. 106:111-134 (2008) 
The views and opinions expressed 
or implied in this article are those of 
the author and do not necessarily reflect 
the position of the National Marine 
Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
James W. Orr (contact author) 
Sharon Hawkins 
Auke Bay Laboratories 
Alaska Fisheries Science Center 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute 
17109 Point Lena Loop Road 
Juneau, Alaska 99801-8626 
Of the more than 110 species of 
Sebastes recognized worldwide, by 
far the greatest number of species 
are found in the North Pacific Ocean, 
where about 100 species are currently 
considered valid (Kai and Nakabo, 
2002; Orr and Blackburn, 2004; 
Hyde and Vetter, 2007). Although 
very important commercially, mem- 
bers of the genus have a reputation 
for being difficult to identify, because 
they are similar in body shape and 
share other morphological characters. 
Live coloration is also an extremely 
important character used in diagnosis 
and identification. Molecular charac- 
ters serve to identify most of these 
species and generally lend support to 
traditional morphological identifica- 
tions and concepts of species limits. 
In addition, the use of genetic data 
has uncovered previously unrecog- 
nized species-level variation in what 
had been considered single species, 
as in the case of the rougheye rock- 
fish complex, now known to comprise 
the two species Sebastes aleutianus 
(Jordan and Evermann, 1898) and 
S. melanostictus (Matsubara, 1934). 
The powerful combination of genetic 
and morphological analyses provides 
a means to identify the important 
characters useful in distinguishing 
new specimens, as well as archived 
material that, in some cases, has been 
preserved for over a century. 
Ranging around the rim of the 
North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, 
from Japan to southern California, 
the species presently recognized as 
Sebastes aleutianus was originally 
described by Jordan and Evermann 
(1898) from four specimens taken in 
waters around Kodiak Island, Alaska. 
Evermann and Goldsborough (1907) 
later described S. swifti, a synonym of 
Sebastes aleutianus, from the north- 
eastern Gulf of Alaska. 
In the western Pacific, Matsubara 
(1934) described two species similar 
to Sebastes aleutianus, S. melanost- 
ictus and S. kawaradae. Barsukov 
(1964, 1970) determined that the 
names of both of these species were 
synonyms of S. aleutianus, apparent- 
ly without examining type material. 
Kanayama and Kitagawa (1982) later 
examined the types and comparative 
material used by Matsubara (1934, 
1943) as well as new material of S. 
aleutianus from the Bering Sea and 
Japanese Pacific coast. They also con- 
