This species is distinguished from all other North Pacific Careproctus species except melanurus by the shape of its pelvic disc, which is oval, longer than wide (vs. round or wider than long in other species), shallowly cupped (vs. flat or deeply cupped), and somewhat smaller than the orbit (vs. minute or large); shallowly notched pectoral fin with elongate rays in the lower lobe (vs. deeply notched with elongate or short rays, or shallowly notched with short rays); and unique COI haplotypes; differs from C. melanurus by having higher vertebral caount 61-67 (vs. 56-62), higher median fin-ray count, dorsal-fin rays 57-63 (vs. 53-59) and anal-fin rays 51-57 (vs. 46-52 in melanurus), longer pelvic disc 14.1-21.2% HL (vs. 12.6-20.7) (Ref. 123358)