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Types of Fish in Puget Sound

Puget Sound is a great convoluted arm of the North Pacific Ocean along the northwestern coast of the U.S., in the state of Washington. Its system of drowned river valleys sculpted by Pleistocene glaciers includes the southernmost fjord on the West Coast, the Hood Canal. Along with orcas, harbor seals and other marine mammals, Puget Sound supports a rich diversity of fishes, including several of notable ecological and commercial importance.

Sculpins
- Around 35 species of sculpin inhabit Puget Sound, according to the University of Washington's Burke Museum. These bottom-feeding fish tend to have big heads, eyes and pectoral fins and a mottled hue, for camouflage purposes. While most are fairly small, the cabezon may exceed 3 feet in length and weigh 25 pounds. This ornately colored, spine-finned predator haunts the margins of rocky reefs and kelp forests, seeking out fodder like crabs and small fish. Its eggs are highly-toxic if ingested.
Salmon
- Numerous species of salmon migrate through Puget Sound, between ocean and river habitats.
  
  The numerous species of Pacific salmonids are some of the region's most iconic and influential creatures, long serving as a prime food source for indigenous populations and supporting a major modern commercial fishing industry. While populations of certain salmonids, like the cutthroat trout, Dolly Varden and steelhead are entirely freshwater in lifestyle, most of these fish are anadromous -- that is, they cycle between marine and freshwater ecosystems throughout the course of their lifetimes. The estuaries of Puget Sound provide critical habitat for both adult salmon (fresh from the ocean and migrating upriver to spawn) and for young salmon (born in freshwater and heading out to sea). Along with providing habitat and shelter, the brackish waters help the fish adjust physiologically between salt- and freshwater environments.
Pacific Halibut
- An evocative-looking fish of great commercial importance in Washington, the Pacific halibut is one of a number of species of right-eye flounders native to Puget Sound. Beginning life as bilaterally symmetrical, surface-foraging fish, halibut transform into flat-bodied bottom-dwellers as adults, their left eye migrating to rest close to the right. Favoring soft sediments, huge Pacific halibut may grow more than 8 feet long and weigh over 800 pounds.
Salmon Shark
- Among the top predators of Puget Sound is the salmon shark, a large, robust and highly-active fish related to the well-known mako and great white sharks. These fish roam the cold, fertile currents of the North Pacific, functioning as an ecological and taxonomic counterpart to the porbeagle shark of the Atlantic basin. A big female salmon shark may exceed 10 feet long and weigh in the vicinity of 1,000 pounds, a reflection of the predator's stocky frame. As their name suggests, these sharks are major hunters of North Pacific salmon, but they certainly don't restrict themselves, preying also on herring, mackerel, cod, dogfish, sardines and squid. Like its relatives -- and a few other active fish, such as tuna -- salmon sharks are endothermic, meaning they regulate their internal temperature independently of the ambient temperature of the surrounding ocean waters.

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