Friend Feature: Rockfish
Yelloweye rockfish, chilling on algae-covered rocks. Notice the spiny rays in its dorsal fin, big mouth with chubby lips, and of course, the yellow eye, key features of this iconic fish. Find this fish familiar? Check out the SeaDoc Society logo! Image by E. Gullekson.
Rockfish and rockfish surveys rock
Two adult copper rockfish visit with some sea anemones as a diver takes note. Image by Nirupam Nigam, Salish Sea in Focus
With many species living over 100 years and sporting colors that would make tropical fish jealous, you could say these fish really rock the Salish Sea. Meet the rockfish. In last month’s Friend Feature, I mentioned spotting the jelly-eating anemone while finning along the seafloor on a baby rockfish survey. I realized that these amazing Salish Sea neighbors had not yet been properly introduced. So here is a Friend Feature all about rockfish, how they were almost lost when hyped up as a replacement for salmon fishing, and how they are recovering, thanks to traditional knowledge and science, including surveys like the one I was on.
Scorpions of the sea
Scorpion-fish is a group of fish that, like scorpions, can really stick it to ya. All of them come equipped with spines in their fins with poison-filled sacs at their base. Step on the spines and the poison shoots up and into one’s foot (or a predator’s maw) like a hypodermic needle. This group includes the lionfish and stonefish of tropical reefs, which can make one regret ever stepping into the sea (or ever being born) if stepped on. The group also includes the thornyheads and rockfish, which are tough enough for more northerly waters, like the Salish Sea.
Quillback rockfish like this one have the amazing capacity to live to 95 years old and pack a venemous punch in those “quills” or spiny rays in its top (dorsal) fin. Image by Marc Chamberlain
Western science, which likes to sort life into categories based on shared traits, places all of the rockfish into the genus, Sebastes (ancient Greek for venerable). Indigenous peoples of our coasts each had their own names for these fish, such as ÍEŦIŦEN;TKOS (SENĆOŦEN). Thousands of years of interacting with these fish brought Coast Salish peoples knowledge of how these fish live; knowledge which western scientists could have used a few decades back when they made what they thought at the time was a good decision.
Eat rockfish, not salmon!
In the 1970s amidst bell bottoms and bad dance moves, a couple of things happened that caused non-indigenous fishers to catch more rockfish and fewer salmon. First, Americans could no longer fish in Canadian waters. Second, after decades of breaking the treaties that promised Washington tribes "the right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations, … in common with all citizens of the Territory,” the treaties were finally enforced. It took the United States of America suing the State of Washington. Judge George H. Boldt presided over the case in a courthouse that is now a library in Tacoma, Washington. He ruled that not only is the State bound to uphold the rights of treaty tribes to half of the catch of returning salmon and steelhead, but two more things: Coast Salish had always had the rights to fish here and, as sovereign nations, treaty tribes would work as partners with the State to make fishery decisions. Also, if there was a lack of returning salmon, the newcomers had to decrease their fishing. At this point, salmon returns had been shrinking for years.
So, Washington State wanted to help. One way was to start a campaign to catch something other than salmon. And there was a seemingly endless supply of rockfish. They even put out ads in fishing and hunting magazines for cool, new ways to catch rockfish and tantalizing recipes for cooking them up.
Wait…we were wrong. Protect rockfish!
Now, as children, who are often the most sensible humans, you may be thinking, hmmm… different fish, same mistake. And you're right. The scientists and policy makers hadn’t put in the time to discover rockfish’s secrets. Secrets that made catching lots of them, the bigger the better, a bad idea. So, you guessed it, rockfish populations tanked. Finally science to study rockfish was supported and these mysteries were revealed:
Rockfish species live for more than 50 or even more than 100 years.
Rockfish moms don’t reproduce until they are 10 or even 25 years old.
Rockfish moms get better with age, producing more and stronger baby fish the older they get.
Rockfish bear live young (this is rare for fish). Eggs hatch out while still inside mom and she protects them during their most vulnerable life stages.
When environmental conditions are not so good, rockfish moms can skip baby making that year or for many years until the environment improves. Polluted water? No new young. Warm water? No new young.
Rockfish stay in the same area, on the same several rocks or in the same kelp forest for their whole lives.
Lingcod and salmon dine on young rockfish, while adults have few predators, though they are occasional meals for harbor seals and sea lions.
Rockfish diets vary by species, but include herring, crabs, shrimp, surfperch, greenlings, and bottom-dwelling invertebrates such as amphipods.
Come back, rockfish!
As you can tell, learning these things was uber important for helping rockfish populations recover. We also need to know how many baby rockfish make it to adulthood. NOAA has sponsored a program where SCUBA divers can volunteer to search for and count young of the year (or YOY). They do YOY surveys, like the one I mentioned above. Want in on the highly technical, scientific skill for knowing if a rockfish is a young of the year? Make a fist. Hold out your first and pinky fingers. Hold it up to the baby rockfish. If the rockfish you’re looking at fits between these two fingers, it’s likely a YOY!
SeaDoc Society has long been heavily involved with rockfish issues and we continue to work closely with recreational fishers, charter guides, and scientists from our local tribes, universities, and government agencies, on both sides of the border in order to provide the best science possible to help leaders make policies that support rockfish. Luckily, that means we get to keep on diving in search of YOYs.
How can you help?
If you go out fishing, remember that every type of rockfish is off limits for now. Rockfish are often caught accidentally by lingcod fishers. Some smart scientists and volunteers for NOAA found that you can avoid accidentally catching rockfish by using live bait, such as flounder, which lingcod will munch but rockfish won’t. Also, use single, round hooks, which are less likely to cause damage if swallowed.
Descend it!
Finally, if you do bring up a rockfish, you may see its stomach popping out of its mouth and its eyes bulging. Rockfish, like most bony fish, have swim bladders filled with air. The upside of swim bladders is they help maintain buoyancy. The downside is when the fish goes from high pressure down deep to low pressure at the surface too quickly, the swim bladder blows up like a balloon, shoving internal organs out of their mouths and pushing their eyes out. The good news is, if that fish can get back to the deep quickly, it has about an 85% chance of surviving. So, you should be prepared to send that fish back to the high-pressure deep to save its life. Deep water descenders, made by many clever fishers, do just that. You can see how they work in this NOAA video.