Canary rockfish (Sebastes pinniger) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 6

Distribution

Global distribution

Canary rockfish are found from northern Baja California to the western Gulf of Alaska (Shelikof Strait) (Love et al. 2002). Populations are most abundant between northern California and B.C. (Figure 2).


Figure 2: Global distribution of canary rockfish

Figure 2. Global distribution of canary rockfish.

Modified and reprinted with permission from Love et al. (2002)


Canadian range

Canary rockfish are widely distributed throughout B.C. coastal waters. The prevalence of this species in recreational fishing in the Strait of Georgia (SoG) indicates that they are probably well distributed in enclosed waters and inlets (Table 1: data source: South Coast Creel Database). They have also been observed at Bowie Seamount, 150 km west of the Queen Charlotte Islands (QCI) (data source: GFBio).

Trawl observations indicate that canary rockfish generally occupy coastal shelf waters (Fig. 1) over bottom depths of 73 to 268 metres (Fig. 3). This translates to an extent of occurrence of >60 000 km2 (Fig. 4). This may be overestimated as canary rockfish prefer hard bottom within this area. However, it appears that they can be encountered within most 25 km2 blocks over or near the continental shelf, which would translate to a minimum area of occupancy of >32 000 km2.


Figure 3: Histogram of the frequency of occurrence of canary rockfish in commercial tows by depth-of-capture as recorded in observer logbooks from the British Columbia commercial trawl fleet (bottom trawls only)

Figure 3. Histogram of the frequency of occurrence of canary rockfish in commercial tows by depth-of-capture as recorded in observer logbooks from the British Columbia commercial trawl fleet (bottom trawls only).

The vertical lines denote the 2.5% and 97.5% quantiles of the observations and are located at 73 m and 268 m. The background histogram is the depth-of-capture from all sets recorded in observer logbooks.

 


Figure 4: Canary rockfish habitat in British Columbia


Figure 4. Canary rockfish habitat in British Columbia.

The grey shaded region defines the potential maximum area (=60 043 km2) of canary rockfish habitat based on depth-of-capture in the commercial trawl fleet. The hatched zone indicates within this region, the area where canary rockfish were actually captured (presence/absence on a 25 km2 grid =32 788 km2 or 54.6% of the potential habitat), based on logs from the commercial trawl, and hook and line fleets.

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