Rockfish is a common term for several species of fish, referring to their tendency to hide among rocks.
The name rockfish is used for many kinds of fish used for food. This
common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...
belongs to several groups that are not closely related, and can be arbitrary.
Specific examples of fish termed rockfish include:
*The family
Sebastidae, marine fishes that inhabit oceans around the world. They may be included in the family
Scorpaenidae
The Scorpaenidae (also known as scorpionfish) are a family (biology), family of mostly ocean, marine fish that includes many of the world's most venomous species. As their name suggests, scorpionfish have a type of "sting" in the form of sharp ...
.
** ''
Sebastes'', a commercially important genus of fish in the Sebastidae inhabiting mainly the North Pacific, but with a few species in the North Atlantic and southern oceans
** In Washington State, many species of ''Sebastes'' and a few of ''
Sebastolobus'' are called rockfish.
* ''
Acanthoclinus'', a genus of fish from New Zealand
*
Bull huss or bull huss (''Scyliorhinus stellaris''), a shark known as
rock salmon when used in cuisine
* ''
Hexagrammos'', a genus of
greenling from the North Pacific
* ''
Hypoplectrodes'', a genus of fish in the family
Serranidae
Serranidae is a large family (biology), family of fishes belonging to the order Perciformes. The family contains about 450 species in 65 genera, including the sea basses and the groupers (subfamily Epinephelinae). Although many species are small, ...
* ''
Salvelinus
''Salvelinus'' is a genus of Salmonidae, salmonid fish often called char or charr; some species are called "trout". ''Salvelinus'' is a member of the subfamily Salmoninae within the family Salmonidae. The genus has a northern circumpolar distrib ...
'', a genus of fish in the
salmon family
* The
stonefishes (genus ''Synanceia''),
venomous fishes from the Indo-Pacific
*
Striped bass
The striped bass (''Morone saxatilis''), also called the Atlantic striped bass, striper, linesider, rock, or rockfish, is an anadromous perciform fish of the family Moronidae found primarily along the Atlantic coast of North America. It has ...
(''Morone saxatilis''), called rockfish on the Atlantic coast of North America from New Jersey south
*
Groupers, fish in the subfamily
Epinephelinae
* Certain fish of genus ''
Scorpaena'', such as the
Madeira rockfish (''S. maderensis''), a common Mediterranean species
* ''
Myliobatis goodei'', which is sometimes called "rockfish"
References
{{Animal common name
Fish common names
Former disambiguation pages converted to set index articles