Gunnel+Fish+of+the+Sea

As I went walking on the Kopachuck beach a couple of days ago I came across this little eel like looking fish. I have never seen it before as I was taking pictures I was trying to figure out what it was. Thinking of an eel I tried looking up certain pictures and species of an eel not finding anything until I asked my teacher and she said it was a Tidepool Gunnel fish. This fish sparked my interest so much I wanted to write about it. The tide pool gunnel can be from 3 to 18in long in length the one I found was about 10in or so give or take a few inches. They are a grey colored sometimes greenish brown and may have markings on there back depending on what you can see. They are very much thin like the one I had seen it has a dorsal fin that is twice the length of its anal fin. The dorsal fin stretches all along down its backside. They love to be in cool waters on the Pacific side that's why I found him and they love being in dark areas under rocks on the shores to be kept hidden from preadators. These Gunnel fish are related to the Wolf Fish, although their shapes and sizes also color may vary they do look somewhat alike, enough to be related. They do come in a variety of species one being the Rock Gunnel fish and the other the Saddleback. The Rock Gunnel fish is a brown color and the Saddleback gunnel fish is a greenish grey brown color with circle markings around on its back. The Gunnel fish I saw was a saddleback gunnel fish it matched the description of what I took a picture of. The Gunnel fish are very slimy so people and other prey have a hard time capturing them, they are commonly mistaken as a rock eel or a butterfish. because it is slimy and looks like and eel hencing the two names given. When the mothers give birth to the babies the eggs are layered which means they don't bear live young. The eggs then are left and deposited for them to fend for themselves as the mother leaves and starts over again. These fish are salt water only not fresh water, they live along shallow shores on the beaches like I have said before. The gunnel fish is a cute little fish that is not known to people who walk on the beaches and if found are under rocks they are mistaken as eels as I did thinking so i really had fun learning about this fish and enjoying my findings on the beach.

By Aubrie