The darkblotched rockfish was first formally described as Sebastodes crameri in 1897 by the American ichthyologist David Starr Jordan with the type locality given as off Tillamook, Oregon.

The specific name honors Frank Cramer, the American biologist and educator, who was a student of Jordan’s and who studied the cranial morphology of rockfishes.

[1] The darkblotched rockfish is found in the North Pacific Ocean where it occurs from southeast of the Zhemchug Canyon in the Bering Sea east and south to Santa Catalina Island in California.

[5] The darkblotched rockfish has an extended breeding season with the fishes mating in August to December, the eggs being fertilized between October and March and the live young being released from November to June.

These fuish are sedentary as adults and even the young fishes have a limited dispersal capability, typically less than 100 km (62 mi).