Rockfish are bony fish in the Scorpaenid family, primarily in the genus Sebastes. Approximately 28 species of rockfish are reported from Puget Sound (Palsson et al. 2009), spanning a range of life-history types, habitats, and ecological niches. This diversity makes rockfish challenging to manage as a group and consequently, single-species management approaches have been recommended (Musick et al. 2000, Parker et al. 2000, Stout et al. 2001, Palsson et al. 2009, WDFW 2009). Rockfish in Pacific waters are among the most long-lived of teleost fishes and have low average annual reproductive success (Love et al. 2002). In combination, these characteristics make rockfish particularly susceptible to over-fishing. All of the rockfish in Puget Sound are classified as having Low or Very Low productivity according to definitions specified by the American Fisheries Society (AFS) (Musick 1999, Musick et al. 2000).
Rockfish
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