The specific name honours the malacologist and explorer William Healey Dall of the Smithsonian Institution.

In living fish there is mottled brown spotting which rapidly fades after death.

[5] The calico rockfish is a demersal fish which is found at depths Between 18 and 256 m (59 and 840 ft)[1] in area where rocky substrates mix with softer substrates where there is fine sediment as well as structured habitats such as natural and man-made reefs.

[6] Sebastes dalli is ovoviviparous, fertilisation is internal and the larvae remain within the female and receive nutrients from her before she gives birth to them.

[1] This is a carnivorous species which preys on crustaceans, cephalopods, bivalves and smaller fishes.