Freckled Rockfish, Sebastes lentiginosus
Freckled Rockfish, Sebastes lentiginosus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Tijuana, Baja California, February, 2023.. Length: 19 cm (7.5 inches). Catch, identification and photograph courtesy of Luke Ovgard, Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Freckled Rockfish, Sebastes lentiginosus. Fish caught from within Mission Bay, San Diego, California, August 2012. Length: 20 cm (7.9 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Kenneth Tse, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Identification tentatively reconfirmed by Milton Love, University of California, Santa Barbara, Goleta, California.
Freckled Rockfish, Sebastes lentiginosus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Tijuana, Baja California, February 2022. Length: 17 cm (6.7 inches). Catch, photograph, and identification courtesy of Chris Moore, Peoria, Arizona. Identification reconfirmed by Milton Love, University of California, Santa Barbara, Goleta, California.
The Freckled Rockfish, Sebastes lentiginosus, whose common Spanish name is rocote pecoso, is a species in the Rockfish and Scorpionfish or Scorpaenidae Family, and is known in Mexico as rocote pecoso. Globally, there are one hundred eight species in the genus Sebastes, of which fifty-three are found in Mexican waters, all in the Pacific Ocean.
Freckled Rockfish have thin oval bodies with a depth that is 33% to 37% of standard length. Dorsally they are heavily marked with brown broken striations with green or greenish-brown flecks, transitioning to orange with yellow tinges on the sides, to pale pink ventrally. They have five or more lighter colored blotches on the back and sides. The dorsal fin is transparent with a yellowish pink tinge. The anal spines and the caudal fin margins are white. The head is short and heavily covered with spines, featuring a short snout, large bulging eyes, and a very large terminal mouth. They have two distinctive and pointed dentigerous processes on the front of the upper jaw. The anal fin has 3 spines and 6 or 7 rays; the caudal fin is square; the dorsal fin has 13 spines and 12 or 13 rays; and their very large pectoral fins have 16 to 18 rays. They have 34 to 39 gill rakers.
The Freckled Rockfish is a demersal species that is found over both high and low relief reefs as a solitary individual or in groups of two or three at depths between 22 m (73 feet) and 290 m (950 feet) with water temperatures between 10oC (49oF) and 12oC (54oF). They reach a maximum of 23 cm (9.1 inches) in length. Reproduction is viviparous. The Freckled Rockfish is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Freckled Rockfish is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean, with a limited distribution, from Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, northward along the central and northwest coasts of Baja.
The Freckled Rockfish is easily confused with the Honeycomb Rockfish, Stegastes umbrosus, the Greenblotched Rockfish, Stegastes rosenblatti, and the Greenspotted Rockfish, Sebastes chlorostictus. However, the Freckled Rockfish has an anal spine that is equal in length to the anal rays and the other three rockfishes do not.
From a conservation perspective the Freckled Rockfish has not been formally evaluated. They are exceedingly rare, seldom seen by humans, small in stature, and of limited interest to most.