Favoritos de prickly_sculpin

A Great Blue Heron caught an enormous and rather rare fish, a Polypera greeni (Lobefin Snailfish). The fish stayed limp in its beak until the heron turned it to swallow it whole, and then the fish squirmed. The last photo shows the heron swallowing the poor fish.

Caught 5 of these here this day, only observed from shore here during late November... Likely in December as well. The following July I kayaked out to 110' depth at the mouth of Port Townsend Bay and was able to catch several more Ribbed Sculpins.

This Nautichthys oculofasciatus (Sailfin Sculpin) was the most remarkable fish I've ever found, like a gossamer butterfly swimming in the sea. It was only about 3/4" long. I'd only seen one once before in the aquarium at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center years ago.

ID with help from Milton Love and Jack Engle at University of California, Santa Barbara. Overall length about 3cm. Very shy. 5-6 individuals observed in crevices at around 50-60’ depth in the dive park at Catalina Island. Possibly a range extension for this species. This was the only image I was able to capture that was worthwhile.