Black Perch Inquiry

April 16, 2015

Question: I’ve been hearing reports of surf and jetty anglers catching good numbers of “black perch”, however, I’ve never heard of a black perch. Do you think they are actually catching black rockfish instead? If so, I worry these anglers may be thinking of these rockfish as perch and are therefore applying perch regulations rather than rockfish regulations. Now that the bag limit of black rockfish is lower, people may break the law without knowing it. Can you please find out if black perch are really black rockfish? (Capt. David B., Santa Barbara)

Answer: Thank you for your concern regarding potential impacts to black rockfish by shore anglers. Black perch, Embiotica jacksoni, is a member of the surfperch family and are definitely not black rockfish, Sebastes melanops.

According to CDFW Environmental Scientist Ken Oda, black perch are commonly caught by anglers on jetties, piers and rocky shorelines. They are also taken occasionally by spear fishermen diving in and around kelp. Other species of surfperch often caught with black perch are striped seaperch, rubberlip seaperch and pile perch. San Francisco Bay area fishermen often refer to black perch as “pogies” and in other areas of the state, anglers call them “buttermouths” because their lips are often yellowish in color.

In most areas, anglers may take up to 10 black surfperch as part of a surfperch aggregate limit of 20. But in San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay, up to five black surfperch may be taken as part of the aggregate limit of five surfperch (CCR Title 14, section 28.59(c)(1). When it comes to black rockfish, anglers may take no more than five as part of the daily bag and possession limit of 10 fish in combination of all species within the RCG Complex (rockfish, cabezon and greenlings) (CCR Title 14, section 28.55(b)).

For a color photo identification guide of common surfperch that also contains diagnostic features of the black perch, please go to www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/fishid.asp. Another source of interesting information about black perch can be found on the Aquarium of the Pacific website at: www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/black_perch.

have always called them rainbow perch. or is there a different species called Rainbow perch ?

Black perch, rainbow perch, and striped perch (which are often confused with rainbow perch) are all different species.

do all species of perch give birth to live young. in the early 70's before I was a teenager I used to catch what we called rubber lip , pile perch and rainbow perch in the harbor of Santa Cruz. good squeeze the belly in 20 or so little perch would come out fully formed and swimming.

Black perch, rainbow perch, and striped perch (which are often confused with rainbow perch) are all different species.

+1.

Dustin, since you are a perch fan I bet you would get a kick out of diving with me one day and seeing all the different perch varieties swimming around down there...black, pile, striped, rainbow, rubberlip etc...they are pretty cool fish for sure.

I've been seeing a LOT more halfmoons this year....they are super cool looking...you have any idea if they are worth shooting to eat?? Badass looking fish!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Black perch, rainbow perch, and striped perch (which are often confused with rainbow perch) are all different species.

+1.

Dustin, since you are a perch fan I bet you would get a kick out of diving with me one day and seeing all the different perch varieties swimming around down there...black, pile, striped, rainbow, rubberlip etc...they are pretty cool fish for sure.

I've been seeing a LOT more halfmoons this year....they are super cool looking...you have any idea if they are worth shooting to eat?? Badass looking fish!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Yeah, I was always amazed at the giant schools of striped perch I would see when I used to SCUBA dive.

Not sure about the halfmoons.

Black perch, rainbow perch, and striped perch (which are often confused with rainbow perch) are all different species.

+1.

Dustin, since you are a perch fan I bet you would get a kick out of diving with me one day and seeing all the different perch varieties swimming around down there...black, pile, striped, rainbow, rubberlip etc...they are pretty cool fish for sure.

I've been seeing a LOT more halfmoons this year....they are super cool looking...you have any idea if they are worth shooting to eat?? Badass looking fish!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Yeah, I was always amazed at the giant schools of striped perch I would see when I used to SCUBA dive.

Not sure about the halfmoons.

Maybe I'll shoot one and see. 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

They don't taste good

I've been seeing a LOT more halfmoons this year....they are super cool looking...you have any idea if they are worth shooting to eat?? Badass looking fish!!
 

Sincerely,

Jim

I've seen large schools of decent size halfmoons but didn't attempt to shoot because they weren't on DOTY  ..........was also wondering why they weren't since there were soooo many? Or would they fall under perch???

These guys right???

They call those blue perch in socal and they pull pretty hard. I heard they taste good but haven't eaten one.

Perch ID chart
https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=36617&inline=true

I've been seeing a LOT more halfmoons this year....they are super cool looking...you have any idea if they are worth shooting to eat?? Badass looking fish!!
 

Sincerely,

Jim

I've seen large schools of decent size halfmoons but didn't attempt to shoot because they weren't on DOTY  ..........was also wondering why they weren't since there were soooo many? Or would they fall under perch???

These guys right???

Yeah those are the ones....this year there are WAY more than I have seen up here in previous years.

I don't think they are really perch, just like opaleye aren't perch.

I bet they DO pull hard PK...they look like they are strong fish.

If I see a nice one on 5/2 I'll blast it and we can throw it in the fryer and see wassup.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

WOW those halfmoons ARE badass looking fish!!! what is there range are they in waters off of sonoma coast?? I wanna tie into a few of those.

Funny thread on the taste of these guys 

Quote:

"Fire up the oven to about 350, saute some garlic and scallions in a cast iron skillet, throw the fish on top searing oth sides, put it in the oven for about 45 minutes giving yourself adequate time to go get a sandwich for dinner. When fish is done give to someone you hate.
Mike"

http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=152925

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=61896.msg697363#msg697363