DSF Rachel the rockfish

Help Rachel get closer to Bamfield, BC

• Share Rachel's adventure on social media using our hashtag, #DSFgeocache, and be entered to win an Ocean Keepers t-shirt!
• Become an Ocean Keeper to learn more about what you and David Suzuki Foundation can do for the ocean

Two-hundred-year-old fish?! That's right — some rockfish swimming in our coastal waters have been alive since Europeans first settled here in B.C. The oldest of the rockfish species in B.C. is the wonderfully named rougheye rockfish. In nearby Alaska, rougheyes have been aged at 205 years, with rougheye rockfish of a similar age living in Canadian waters. Most rockfish find a suitable home and pretty much stay put throughout the course of their life. Their non-migratory nature, and the fact that many species don't reproduce until they're about 20 years old, makes populations vulnerable to uncontrolled fishing. Fisheries and Oceans Canada have set up Rockfish Conservation Areas to protect rockfish in some of their critical habitat.

There are 102 species of rockfish in the world and 36 of them can be found in British Columbia. Rockfish produce lots of young, but that doesn't mean they all survive. Young rockfish need very specific conditions and there are only a few years in the last century during which large numbers of rockfish have survived. The last batch of yelloweye rockfish babies that survived to adulthood was born in 1982! Larger female rockfish give birth to babies with the best chance of survival, but unfortunately these are also the animals targeted by sports fisheries. As well as humans, other predators include harbour seals, sea lions and lingcod.