[2] Sebastes mystinus was first formally described in 1881 by the American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan and Charles Henry Gilbert with the type locality given as San Francisco, California.

Color is a bluish black to gray, with some darker mottling, including a pair of stripes angling down and back from the eye.

[5] Juveniles consume tiny crustacea such as copepods and barnacle larvae (in some cases having a significant effect on the population), while adults shift to larger types, such as free-swimming tunicates, jellyfish, gastropods, squids, young rockfish, and drifting plant fragments.

Previous records further north are due to confusion with the deacon rockfish (S. diaconus), which was described as a separate species genetically and scientifically in 2009 and 2015, respectively.

They continue to be of interest as game fish, and are among the most common types landed by boat anglers; in fact, there is evidence of overfishing in Monterey Bay and southern California.