“We wrote this book because rockfishes are cool. We could come up with all sorts of others reasons. We could tell you that the rockfishes are a remarkable group of fishes, that there are at least 72 species in the northeast Pacific, and that they dominate a host of fish communities in this region. We could fascinate you with how quickly they appear to speciate. We could regale you with facts about how they occur in virtually every habitat from intertidal waters to 2,830 meters from mud and sand to boulder fields. We could stun you with the information that some of the oldest fishes on earth are the 205-year-old rockfish in the Gulf of Alaska that seem to be frozen in time, both literally and figuratively…We could remind you that rockfishes come in an amazing array of shapes, from little spindly ones shaped like mackerels to great, squat, spiny ones, closely resembling pineapples. And we could grab you by your heartstrings with information about how important they are to recreational and commercial fisheries and how their populations are in severe trouble due to overfishing and poor oceanographic conditions. We could say all of these things and they would all be true. But this description would be wanting. Because, when it comes down to the heart of the matter, we just think that rockfishes are very cool.” (From the Introduction.) Anyone interested in fish will enjoy this book for its variety of information and presentation, its colorful photos, graphs, and the obvious love of the authors for their subject matter. Extensive list of references is included. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 2002. Large format, 405 pp.,