Redstripe Rockfish in Hood Canal?!

Fish & Invertebrate sightings and descriptions, hosted by resident NWDC ID expert Janna Nichols (nwscubamom).
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nwscubamom
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Redstripe Rockfish in Hood Canal?!

Post by nwscubamom »

Rockfish Geeks,
We dove the Pinnacle yesterday and were pleased to see 8 different species of rockfish swimming around. The usual Coppers, Browns and Quillbacks were hanging around close to the boulders on the bottom. There were some really large Vermilions that have been there for years - some near the bottom, some out midwater off the pinnacle. And then there were lots of Blacks, doing their Black schooling thing facing into the mild current. Visibility was pretty nice under 35 feet.
Blacks, Vermilions school off the Pinnacle
Blacks, Vermilions school off the Pinnacle
In the past I've seen lots of Yellowtails also schooling, but yesterday only saw two small ones down in the boulders, hiding.

We also often see a few Puget Sounds hiding under the boulders on the bottom, but yesterday in addition to the usual boulder-dwellers, there were hundreds of them schooling out in midwater in the 60-70ft range off the side of the pinnacle. They were about 6"/15cm in size.
Your usual, run-of-the-mill Puget Sound Rockfish
Your usual, run-of-the-mill Puget Sound Rockfish
BUT THEN!! One of them caught my eye because it looked slightly different
What's this?? Look at that nice red stripe!
What's this?? Look at that nice red stripe!
- and I realized that was NOT a Puget Sound at all! I started looking around a little more carefully, and found there were lots (dozens) mixed in with the Puget Sounds that sure looked to me like Redstripes.
A couple of Puget Sounds in the background, with a Redstripe in the foreground
A couple of Puget Sounds in the background, with a Redstripe in the foreground
At one point a bunch of the Redstripes separated from the Puget Sounds and headed down to a little deeper water together. But later they were mostly all back schooling with the Puget Sounds.
Redstripe Rockfish
Redstripe Rockfish
So what do you look for? Here's what I've found: Can you see anything else?
- The eye. Puget Sounds have a very dark, smudged black eye. Redstripes are clear.
- The lateral line. On a Puget Sound, it's a very thin dotted line. On the Redstripe, it's thicker, and whitish pink
- It almost looks like you can see its ribs in the right light! Thin zigzag lines along the side.

So why don't we see them more often? From what I can read, they're typically found in the 500 - 900 foot range.
Why they're in Hood Canal hanging out with the local boys, is beyond my understanding.

Anyway, I am on cloud 9 and plan to go back next weekend to see if they're still there!

- Janna
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Scubie Doo
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Re: Redstripe Rockfish in Hood Canal?!

Post by Scubie Doo »

Wow, Janna. That is a really cool find. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for them.
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FlyinV
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Re: Redstripe Rockfish in Hood Canal?!

Post by FlyinV »

Always cool to see something new!
Frank at Sunrise motel was mentioning to me he had reports of different fish being seen then usual out front of his resort.
While I won't be an alarmist :smt064 that is what he was saying.

Hopefully something bad isn't happening that is making the fish move around.

We ran into a lot of fish there this weekend with large schools of coppers around the deep boats.
Jeff V
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CaptnJack
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Re: Redstripe Rockfish in Hood Canal?!

Post by CaptnJack »

Very cool. I saw some at the horizontal barge off Shilshole many years ago and haven't seen any since. Mine were sitting on the bottom for some strange reason. You'll have to pardon the acetate based picture lol.

http://green2.kingcounty.gov/marine/Pho ... hotoId=278
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nwscubamom
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Re: Redstripe Rockfish in Hood Canal?!

Post by nwscubamom »

CaptnJack wrote:Very cool. I saw some at the horizontal barge off Shilshole many years ago and haven't seen any since. Mine were sitting on the bottom for some strange reason.
Yours looks a lot older than mine - the ones I saw were about 6" I'd say? Betty saw one off Whidbey a year or two ago, and it was a larger one as well.
Always fun seeing something out of the ordinary!

- Janna
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Re: Redstripe Rockfish in Hood Canal?!

Post by Tangfish »

Somebody's putting her sweet new camera rig to work on Fish IDs... jeeze, who might such a person be? :eek: :taco:
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Re: Redstripe Rockfish in Hood Canal?!

Post by CaptnJack »

Yeah the ones I saw were perhaps 8" long? At the time I didn't know what it was but they were being so compliant sitting on the sand even a numpty like me could get a reasonable pic with a film camera. I have seen the occasionally since then, once a few weeks ago at the Brinnon Pinnacle too. But I didn't realize they were so unusual there at the time and they were mixed up with the Puget Sound's so I didn't go out of my way for them
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