Adult Canary rockfish are mostly orange with a light background. They exhibit three bright orange stripes running diagonally across the head with one stripe on either side of the eye. The lateral line lacks pigment and appears as a gray or white stripe extending back to the tail. Some Canaries show black blotches towards the back of the spiny dorsal fin.
This species forms dense schools in areas with high current and high relief rock structure as well as around boulder fields and muddy flats, usually near the bottom. They range from the western Gulf of Alaska to northern Baja California and can attain a length of nearly 30 inches. A National Marine Fisheries Service survey once took two Canary rockfish from a depth of 2,765 feet, though most are found between 260 and 660 feet.
