Its native habitat is the temperate waters of the northern Pacific, from Baja California to Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and southeastern parts of the Bering Sea.

Its upper surface is grey to olive to dark brown or black, lighter or darker mottling, and is sometimes marked with yellow or red spots; the underside is light.

The diet of the rock soles consists mainly of zoobenthos organisms such as molluscs, crustaceans, brittle stars, marine worms and other fish.

[4] The 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 rock sole in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands population is now estimated to be very high, at twice the level required to support maximum sustainable yield.