Aleutian scorpionfish
Adelosebastes latens
About
The Aleutian scorpionfish is a bright red rockfish of the cold North Pacific. It grows to about 30 cm and lives near the bottom far deeper than any diver goes, on seamounts and island slopes. It is the only species in its genus, a lone branch among the rockfishes.
- Length
- 30 cm
- Depth
- up to 1200 m
How to tell it apart
Red rockfishes of the North Pacific look much alike, and colour alone settles nothing. Look at the back edge of the gill cover: this species usually carries a black mark there, and the membranes between the dorsal and pectoral fin rays are flecked with black spots. Check the gill cover mark first.
Appearance
Living fish are a strong crimson red. The head carries stout spines, but the ridge under the eye has only weak spines or none at all. Some fish show dark marks on the nape and along the back, sometimes as three faint bands of dark spots. The pectoral fin can look two-lobed. The dorsal fin has a long spiny front part followed by soft rays, as in other rockfishes.
Habitat
This fish lives on or just above the bottom in the northern Pacific Ocean. It is known from the Emperor Seamount Chain, the undersea mountain range running north towards the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, and from the Aleutian Islands. Records come from between 900 and 1200 m, so this is a deep cold-water fish of slopes and seamount flanks rather than anything a diver will meet.
Did you know?
Both halves of its scientific name mean hidden. The genus name comes from a Greek word for unseen and the species name from the Latin for secret. The scientists who named it never said why, though it does live in one of the least explored parts of the Pacific.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.