Sebastes ensifer
species of fish
Sebastes ensifer, the swordspine rockfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Sebastinae, the rockfishes, part of the family Scorpaenidae. It is found in the northeastern Pacific Ocean.
Taxonomy
Sebastes ensifer was first formally described in 1971 by the Taiwanese ichthyologist Chen Lo-Chai (also known as Lloyd Chen) with the type locality given as off La Jolla, California. Some authorities classify this species in the subgenus Sebastomus. The specific name ensifer means "sword bearer", a reference to the long second spine of the anal fin.
Description
Sebastes ensifer has a relatively slender body with a depth that is just over a quarter of its standard length. The body has many spines and is covered in scales. The colour varies from bronze to orange, pink, or red. There are 3 to 5 light-coloured spots on the upper body. The long head ends in a moderately long snout and has very large eyes, and a quite large terminally positioned mouth.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2592186. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sebastes ensifer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.