schooling fish id needed

[thelawgoddess]

not having luck with this ID with my books. anybody know what these are? they were hanging out by the possession point wall this weekend.

<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1278/103 ... b46c07.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="School of Fish"></a>

[gcbryan]

My guess would be Yellowtail Rockfish.

[thelawgoddess]

at first i thought maybe it could be black rockfish, but they didn't seem to have knob on their lips. perhaps they are yellowtail rockfish ... thanks!

[gcbryan]

at first i thought maybe it could be black rockfish, but they didn't seem to have knob on their lips. perhaps they are yellowtail rockfish ... thanks!

It's hard for me to tell for sure from the picture since the flash wasn't close enough to bring out the true color. Black and Blue Rockfish look somewhat similar with the Blue having darker bands near their mouth. Yellowtail definitely have yellow tails but it's hard to see if that is the case from this picture but that is my guess.

[Sounder]

Well, it's some sort of RF - some help I am, eh? Looks like yellow tail to me.

[thelawgoddess]

yeah; i think you guys are right. i messed around with my photo on photoshop a bit and i think they probably are yellow. i'm gonna go with that.

[nwscubamom]

Definitely Yellowtails!! They are quite similar to Blacks in body shape and markings, (good observation, Lawgoddess) but....they have...YELLOW on their fins! Imagine that! I always like it when they name the fish after some obvious characteristic.

Yellowtails, Blacks and Blues all are schooling Rockfish, but you get to know their body shapes, fin shapes, etc so even in silhouette, you can figure them out.

- Janna

[thelawgoddess]

thanks, janna! i couldn't remember what color they were really. :-)

[Seth T.]

Yellowtail. Mmmm, wine....