Crested Sculpin, Blepsias bilobus
![[Crested Sculpin, Blepsias bilobus, fishsculp.jpg=64KB]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20080918014749im_/http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/kodiak/images/photo/fishsculp.jpg)
The crested sculpin, Blepsias bilobus, in the family
Hemitripteridae, is recognized by its compressed body and multiple cirri on the snout
and lower jaw. The crested sculpin ranges from Kamchatka, Russia and Toyama Bay
in Japan, the Commander Islands, along the Aleutian Islands through southern
Alaska to northern British Columbia, Canada. The crested sculpin is generally
found in shallow coastal waters. Eric Munk, a Kodiak Lab diver,
found this sculpin in the kelp on a mud bottom at 35-40 feet. Length to 25 cm
(10 inches). In the Auke Bay Laboratory (NMFS, Juneau, AK), these sculpins
were observed to slough or molt their skin periodically (Millstein, 1998).
Scientific name: Greek blepo (look-an old fish name)
and the Latin bi (two) and lobus (lobe-two dorsal fins,
each smoothly contoured).
Digital photo by Jan Haaga. References (a complete list) in the text include: Kessler(1985), Eschmeyer et al.(1983), and Hart (1973).
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