Embiotoca lateralis

Embiotoca lateralis, the striped surfperch or striped seaperch, is a surfperch native to the Northeastern Pacific Ocean, found from Punta Baja in central Baja California northward to Wrangell in southeastern Alaska. It is a marine fish of shallow water that lives near rocky reefs, eelgrass beds, kelp forests and man-made structures such as piers, and it has been recorded down to about 95 metres. The body is deep and laterally compressed and can be bronze, brown-orange, pink or darker, with bright blue stripes running lengthwise, blue spots on the head and gill cover, and orange to yellow fins. Individuals reach about 41.5 centimetres and a kilogram in weight. Like other surfperches it is viviparous, giving birth to live young, and it matures at about two years of age. It feeds on marine worms, bryozoans, small crustaceans and molluscs, and it shares its range with its only relative in the genus, the black surfperch, and where the two overlap the striped surfperch is more often found on shallow algae-covered reefs. Anglers catch it commonly but often release larger fish because they are pregnant, and there is no targeted commercial fishery.