Quillback rockfish (Sebastes maliger) is a saltwater species recorded in the United States. It is mainly found over reef, rocky, sand, seagrass, at depths of 41–275 m.
Scientific name: Sebastes maliger · Water: Saltwater
Size: up to 61 cm
The quillback rockfish (Sebastes maliger), also called the quillback seaperch, is a rockfish of the subfamily Sebastinae named for the sharp quills on its dorsal fin, which is deeply notched between the long spines; its mottled orange-brown colouring blends into rocky reef. It was described in 1880 by David Starr Jordan and Charles Henry Gilbert from the Farallon Islands off San Francisco and lives along the Pacific coast from the Gulf of Alaska to the northern Channel Islands of southern California, perched on rocks or hiding in crevices, rarely in the open ocean and mostly solitary, with juveniles inshore over reef, sand and eelgrass and adults deeper — commonly caught in cold water 41–60 m deep, but occurring to 275 m. It is a popular sport fish in the United States, where boat anglers fish it with squid, strip baits and jigs over rocky structure in Washington, Oregon and California, and it sometimes moves seasonally onto low-relief reefs in summer when kelp is present.
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