Longhorn Sculpin Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Large, broad head that tapers to a slimmer, scaleless body
• Four long spines projecting from the cheek (preopercle), the longest reaching well past the gill cover
• Mottled olive-brown to reddish-brown body with darker saddle-like blotches
• Large, fan-shaped pectoral fins often held spread against the bottom
• Two separate dorsal fins, the first spiny and the second soft-rayed
• Grows to roughly 35-45 cm, among the larger northwest Atlantic sculpins

Common look-alikes

• Shorthorn Sculpin: has much shorter, blunter preopercular spines that barely extend past the gill cover
• Grubby: a smaller, stockier sculpin lacking the long facial spines and reaching only about 15 cm
• Sea Raven: has a fringed, warty skin texture and a distinctly spiny first dorsal fin rather than smooth mottled skin

Where you'll see one

Longhorn Sculpins are bottom-dwellers found from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Chesapeake Bay, favoring sandy, gravelly, or muddy substrates in bays, estuaries, and continental shelf waters from the shoreline down to over 100 meters.