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The cowcod is one of the largest rockfish species, reaching almost 39 inches (1 m) in total length and may live up to 55 years. Like other species of their genus, cowcod are internal fertilizers. Reproduction occurs in winter and early spring, and larvae spend about 100 days as plankton. Females mature at 13 inches (32 cm).

It is an ambush predator of the deep shelf and upper slope, living in depths of 65 to 1600 feet (20 to 500 m). They eat fish, octopus, and squid. Juvenile cowcod eat small shrimp and crabs.

Overfishing of cowcod in the 1970s and 1980s is estimated to have led to a steep decline in abundance to a low point of 9% of unfished biomass in 1989.[2] The stock was declared overfished in 2000 and retention cowcod was prohibited from January 2001 until January 2011. From 2011 onward, a small quota was allocated to the trawl fishery but retention remained prohibited in all other sectors. The initial rebuilding plan estimated that the recovery would take decades, but a stock assessment conducted in 2019 estimated the stock had recovered to 57% of the unfished biomass and the stock was declared to have been rebuilt.[2][3]

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife closed 4,300 square nautical miles off southern California to all bottomfishing as a cowcod conservation area, and prohibited all cowcod catch.[4]

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