| What We Are Up To |
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| Some Interesting Stuff |
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There are a few species of rockfish
in the central Gulf of California and we spent a very hot week in August collecting some of these.
Mexican rockfish, S. macdonaldi, is found in the Gulf of California and on the Pacific Coast of Baja
California. The two populations are separated by the band of tropical water around the tip of Baja. We're
looking to see just how similar the two populations really are.
Copper rockfish, Sebastes caurinus. Once thought to be two species (copper rockfish
and whitebelly rockfish), Andy Gray and Tony Gharrett have shown that this fish is genetically similar
over much of its range (at least from the Queen Charlotte Is., British Columbia to central California) and is,
like we all suspected, really one species. One cool thing is that we have collected some fish that seem to be
hybrids between coppers and quillback rockfish (S. maliger).
This is a tough one.
The gopher rockfish, S. carnatus, and the black-and-yellow rockfish, S.
chrysomelas, are physically identical except for color pattern. They have about the same
geographic range (about northern California down into Baja California) and about the same depth range
(though black-and-yellows tend to be found a bit shallower). Since they are physically the same, are they
the same species? Some genetic analyses point to that and we are continuing the investigation.
Questions?Milton Love
