Harnessing mtDNA variation to resolve ambiguity in ‘Redfish’ sold in Europe

Morphology-based identification of North Atlantic Sebastes has long been controversial and misidentification may produce misleading data, with cascading consequences that negatively affect fisheries management and seafood labelling. North Atlantic Sebastes comprises of four species, commonly known as 'redfish', but little is known about the number, identity and labelling accuracy of redfish species sold across Europe. We used a molecular approach to identify redfish species from 'blind' specimens to evaluate the performance of the Barcode of Life (BOLD) and Genbank databases, as well as carrying out a market product accuracy survey from retailers across Europe. The conventional BOLD approach proved ambiguous, and phylogenetic analysis based on mtDNA control region sequences provided a higher resolution for species identification. By sampling market products from four countries, we found the presence of two species of redfish (S. norvegicus and S. mentella) and one unidentified Pacific rockfish marketed in Europe. Furthermore, public databases revealed the existence of inaccurate reference sequences, likely stemming from species misidentification from previous studies, which currently hinders the efficacy of DNA methods for the identification of Sebastes market samples.