Sculpin Sunday - Roughback Sculpin

Welcome back to my continuing series on the sculpin species of the Pacific Northwest. This weeks family member is the Roughback Sculpin, Chitonotus pugetensis.

This sculpin is the only known member of its genius, Chitonotus making it very unique among its sculpin brethren. These little fish range from Northern British Columbia to Baja Mexico and are typically found on muddy and sandy bottoms. None of the Roughbacks I have encountered have been living at shallow depths. These fish seem to live much deeper away from heavily currant areas.

Growing to as much as 25 cm (10 inches), which is quite large for smaller sculpin species, these fish have one very distinct identifying feature which is the notch or space in there dorsal fin.

Their colouration varies from molted and blotchy brown to darker reds and even black. These fish tend to camouflage very well so finding and photographing them can be difficult. Due to very they typically live kicking up a lot of sediment and creating backscatter can be very problematic for getting images, take it slow and maintain good buoyancy control.

Thanks for reading and happy sculpin hunting.

Scott

For more stories and images - http://www.scottstevensonphotography.ca/