In a departure from the popular images of salmon, whales and cute mammals, today I will present some other interesting life I’ve encountered.

I’ll start with this beauty.

It’s a Staghorn Sculpin.  I’ve caught a handful of these over the last two months.  Though they look weird, they are perfectly harmless; no spines or teeth.  The name comes from the unique shape at the point of the gill plate.

On another day, my lure blundered into a dense school of baitfish, snagging one in the process.

I’m not 100 percent certain, but I believe it is a species of smelt.

Jellies are an extremely common form of life in the world’s oceans.  When the waves are calm and the lighting is good, I have frequently seen them from the decks of ferries and drifting by from the shore.

Low tide is a wonderful time to observe a plethora of interesting creatures.  This image of a small crab also has a bunch of snails and a limpet.

Only once have I been at a location where tidal pools contained sea stars.  Naturally, I needed to take a closer look.  At this spot, nearly ever surface of every rock was covered with mussels and barnacles.

My time in Alaska is drawing to a close.  With all the work complete, I am back in Ketchikan getting things ready to ship out.  The streams around here are full of chum salmon right now, so am going to see what I can do about that in the time I have left.