Sebastes mentella was first formally described in 1951 by the Soviet biologist Valentin Ivanovich Travin with the type locality given as the Bear Island Banks in the Barents Sea.

The specific name mentella is a diminutive of mentum which means "chin", a reference to the obvious symphyseal knob.

It occurs from Baffin Island south to Nova Scotia, around Greenland and Iceland, along the Iceland-Faroes ridge and northwards off Norway as far as Svalbard, Jan Mayen and the Barents Sea.

[2] Sebastes mentella is ovoviviparous, the females are inseminated by the males in August-September in the Barents Sea or from September to mid-December off Iceland.

[7] This is a gregarious species at all stages of its life cycle, It feeds on krill, hyperiids, cephalopods, chaetognaths and small fishes.