Morphological Comparison of Two Northwest Atlantic Redfishes, Sebastes fasciatus and S. mentella, and Techniques for Their Identification

Abstract

A knowledge of the taxonomy of the Atlantic redfishes, Sebastes spp., and techniques for their field identification are essential prerequisites for rational management of their fishery, but both remain poorly known. Through analysis of a set of morphological data for Sebastes fasciatus and S. mentella of the Scotian Shelf, using multivariate techniques, I examined the potential of 15 characters as field identifiers. Although the species are significantly different, they cannot be fully separated using these characters. I suggest that electrophoretic techniques are needed for precise identifications, although a rapid method for determining the species compositions of large samples, using anal fin ray counts, could be developed.