Golden redfish (Sebastes norvegicus) is a saltwater species recorded in the United States. It is found at depths of 100–1000 m.
Scientific name: Sebastes norvegicus · Water: Saltwater
Size: up to 100 cm
The golden redfish is a pelagic oceanic sebastid found off the coast from 100 to 1,000 m, with juveniles in fjords, bays and inshore waters, and it is normally trawled in deep water. It is benthic in habit and gregarious throughout life, a slow-growing species that feeds mostly on euphausiids, herring, capelin and ctenophores as these become available through the year. It is ovoviviparous, with the gonads of male and female not maturing at the same time: the spermatozoa are kept in the ovary of the female after copulation until the eggs ripen and fertilisation follows, and copulation takes place at the end of the warm period while females give birth to 50,000 to 350,000 pelagic larvae of 8 mm. Its range is the eastern Atlantic, from the Kattegat and North Sea northward to Spitsbergen and the southern Barents Sea, rare in the White Sea, Iceland and eastern Greenland, and the western Atlantic from Greenland and south-eastern Labrador to New Jersey. Maximum length is about 100 cm total length, commonly about 45 cm, and it can live 60 years, maturing at about 38.9 cm. It is a highly commercial species and a gamefish, utilized fresh and frozen, with a low price category. Fishing vulnerability is high to very high at 71 of 100 and resilience low, and climate vulnerability is high to very high at 69 of 100. IUCN lists it as least concern.
Caution: large individuals carry a ciguatera risk. Heat, cold and marinating do not remove the toxin, which concentrates in the liver, roe and head, so avoid eating those parts. Seek medical help if numbness, tingling or a reversed sense of hot and cold follows a meal.
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