Aspects of the life histories of grass rockfish, Sebastes rastrelliger, and brown rockfish, S-auriculatus, from southern California

We collected data on age-length and length-weight relationships, age and le ngth at first maturity, and spawning seasons of grass rockfish, Sebastes ra strelliger, and brown rockfish, S. auriculatus, off southern California. In addition, we also collected data on fecundity of grass rockfish. For both species, males and females grew at the same rates and von Bertalanffy age-l ength parameters for grass rockfish were l(infinity) = 51.3 cm, k = 0.11, t (0) = -2.41 and for brown rockfish l(infinity) = 51.4 cm, k = 0.16, t(0) = -0.55. Male and female grass rockfish matured at about the same length and age, between 22 and 28 cm and between 2 and 5 yr. There was also little dif ference between the sexes for brown rockfish; they matured between 19 and 3 2 cm and between 3 and 6 yr. Grass rockfish spawned from January to March, peaking during January; brown rockfish spawned from January to June (and pe rhaps August), also peaking in January. Fecundity of grass rockfish ranged from about 80,000-760,000 eggs.