Staghorn Sculpin Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Distinctive branched, antler-like spine on the preopercle that gives the species its name
• Smooth, scaleless skin (no prickles), unlike many related sculpins
• Olive-brown to grayish-green body with faint mottling and pale blotches
• Yellowish to orange pelvic and lower fins, especially noticeable in breeding males
• Large head and wide mouth relative to a tapering body
• Typically 15-25 cm, occasionally larger

Common look-alikes

• Pacific Staghorn's close relative the Buffalo Sculpin: has a much stockier, humped body and rougher, more textured skin
• Prickly Sculpin: shows fine prickles behind the pectoral fin base that the Staghorn Sculpin lacks
• Cabezon: grows far larger with a fleshy cirrus over each eye, absent in the Staghorn Sculpin

Where you'll see one

Staghorn Sculpins are common in shallow bays, estuaries, tide pools, and muddy or sandy flats along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja California, often tolerating brackish and even fresh water near river mouths, and are frequently caught on piers and in surf-zone habitats close to shore.