Fish on the sand

In the eelgrass beds at the bottom of the intertidal zone, fish dart through the thickets, usually visible only as a flash of movement, a streaking silver shape dashing from shadow to shadow, or a panicked thrash to escape my clumsy foot. They're usually not the fish I see in the upper zones, the sculpins and the flatfish, but they speed away so fast that I haven't been able to recognize any.

This last trip to the low tide line, though, the shallows were littered with dead and dying small fish; I was able to identify three species.

Another Pacific sand lance, Ammodytes hexapterus. These grow to about 11 inches long, so this is a youngster.

In one small area, I counted over 50 of these, all dead, but still fresh, surprisingly still untouched by gulls or crabs. They were all young; the adults spawn and die in mid-winter here. I am wondering what caused this die-off.

A larger sand lance, still alive, but barely. The back is a glittery blue-green, which should help with camouflage in the eelgrass beds, at least from above. At night, they burrow into the sand, to hide from predators.

Mixed with the sand lances, a few darker, larger fish stood out.

Pacific snake prickleback, Lumpenus sagitta. About 8 inches long.

Another. This was still alive, but not able to swim away.

Again, these were young fish; the adults grow to 20 inches long and spawn in the winter.

One more; a beautiful singing midshipman, no longer able to sing.

A steampunk fish, looking as if he were made of riveted plates. Plainfin midshipman, Porichthys notatus, about 8 inches long.

These are night-swimming fish; during the day, they hide under rocks. I found a male, guarding eggs, about this same time three years ago, under a rock at the boat launch. He was fatter and longer than this one.

The "rivets" are lines of photopores, cells that emit light. They may help to attract prey at night. (Although we don't really know that; it's human speculation. We do like to imagine that we understand Ma Nature.)

Belly up, showing the pattern of photopores, and his delicate colouring.

Zooming in to the tail end, to show the little lights, and - look closely - tiny waving three-fingered hands, all in a row.

I didn't pick this one up; some midshipmen have poisonous spines. I'm not sure if this species does, but I'm not risking it.

And I'm left wondering why all these suddenly showed up dead, all at once. The water was clear, it smelled fresh, there was no scum or oil sheen. There is construction going on 'way back at the shore, but that's a full kilometre away. Worrisome.

Fishies three

We don't often see fish on the beach, except for the tiny, almost invisible, tidepool sculpins. But down at the water's edge, at the low-water mark, we found three this week. Two of them I had never seen before.

This Pacific Sand Lance was on Crescent Beach.

Ammodytes hexapterus

This was one of three, all about 6 inches long, all dead. None showed signs of injury. The mature Sand Lance grows to about 11 inches long, so these were young ones.

They swim, at times, in huge schools, and I think they are the ones I watched, years ago, off Deep Cove dock. As adults, though, they bury themselves in the sand, especially at night.

"Some species are inshore coastal dwellers, and digging for sand lances to use as a bait fish has been a popular pastime in coastal areas of Europe and North America." Wikipedia.

That's a new concept for me: digging for fish.

Wednesday we walked the low-tide level at White Rock. In a shallow pool, this white-headed sculpin lay, barely moving, watching us. He didn't burrow into the sand, the way the usual sculpins do, relying on his unfishlike shape and immobility, perhaps, to avoid notice.

Unidentified sculpin, possibly the Buffalo sculpin, Enophrys bison.

About the Buffalo Sculpin, the Marine Life Encyclopedia says, "Usually motionless and always well camouflaged ..." Stranded on a grey beach, though, the protective coloration doesn't exactly work.

"These medium sized sculpins are immediately recognizable by their proportionally large head. When threatened they will erect their sharp opercular spines which somewhat resemble the horns of bison." E-Fauna

E-Fauna's photo of a Buffalo Sculpin shows a green head. Sculpins, in general, come in a variety of colours within the same species. The Encyclopedia has a red-headed Buffalo, and a grayish one.

Crescent Gunnel, Pholis laeta.

In the shadow of the pier, we found this snake-like fish, about 7 inches long, half in and half out of the water. It is a beautiful, translucent green; the photos don't do justice to it.

In this exposed situation, (it usually hides in seaweed) its best option was to play dead, but when I came down a few inches away, trying to get a head shot, it moved away slowly, slithering snakily.

Eye to eye

Frequently in intertidal areas, in tide pools or under rocks protected by seaweeds. May remain out of water under rocks or seaweed. Probably feeds on small crustaceans and marine worms. Breathes air when out of water. Fishbase

This explains why, when the gunnel put its head underwater, it exhaled a series of bubbles. An amphibious fish on our beaches; will wonders never cease!

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Amazed by a Dead Fish

I found two of these fish yesterday, belly up, in a tiny creek in the intertidal zone. Bullheads, as I have always called them; I think the "correct" name is sculpins. Pacific staghorn sculpins? Those are common here, according to the references I found. But so are several other varieties.

I had never seen the underside before, at least not to pay attention to. They're boring fish, after all; they're dark and/or camouflaged, and they just skulk on the bottom and startle waders. Too small to eat, too sluggish to jump, too common around here to merit a second glance.

But upside-down, in the sunlight, they're beautiful! Look at this detail!

This was taken with the fish still under an inch or two of clear water. Do click on the image to see the pattern close up. Those rows of little white dots are not just coloration; they protrude like tiny gleaming bone tips.

Here's a closer view:

I guess I should have flipped at least one of the fishes over and photographed the topside, for identification purposes. But somehow it didn't feel "right" to disturb their rest. Silly me; by now, the crabs will have eaten them anyhow.

But I'm entitled to be absurd sometimes, I think.

And in spite of that, I still hope someone can come up with a good ID for these little guys.