Its native habitat is the temperate waters of the northern Pacific, from Puget Sound to Alaska (overlapping the range of the rock sole), the Aleutian Islands and across the Bering Sea to the Kuril Islands and the Sea of Okhotsk (overlapping the range of the dusky sole).

[3] The Northern rock sole occupies a moderately high trophic level in the food chain.

[1][3] Northern rock sole reach reproductive maturity at between 4 and 7 years old, and spawn in winter through to early spring.

[3] Northern rock sole is fished commercially, and forms an important part of two trawl fisheries in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.

Although it was overfished in the 1960s stocks have recovered, and the biomass of Northern rock sole in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands fishery is now estimated to be very high, at twice the level required to support maximum sustainable yield.