A Field Guide to Fishes of the Salish Sea

“Not into fish ID? Just flipping through the book and enjoying the names of the fish is enough to make you giggle on a bad day: pricklebreast poacher, blackfin fathead, mosshead warbonnet.” — Joseph K. Gaydos, VMD, PhD, SeaDoc Society

A Field Guide to Fishes of the Salish Sea, Puget Sound and the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca by Theodore Wells Pietsch and James Wilder Orr

Illustrated by Joseph R. Tomelleri

Small, lightweight, and easy to use, A Field Guide to Fishes of the Salish Sea is a beautifully illustrated guide to identify the saltwater and anadromous fishes of the inland marine waters of Washington State and British Columbia. A must have for any backpack or home library! The most comprehensive and up-to-date work of its kind.

Covering approximately 6,948 square miles of sea surface, the Salish Sea is home to 260 species of fish. The fish species are arranged phylogenetically—representing the evolutionary history and relationships between groups—beginning with the jawless hagfishes and lampreys and ending with the bizarre Ocean Sunfish. 

With an introduction that describes the “Salish Sea”, how it got its name and its general geographic features, the guide gives accounts of the 80 fish families represented in the Salish Sea before moving on to cover the 260 individual species that have been recorded in Salish Sea waters. 

The authors generally avoid the use of ichthyological jargon, instead substituting common, everyday descriptors for the often-difficult terminology routinely used by professional ichthyologists. 

And for those who think the cold-water ichthyofauna of the Salish Sea might be drab, the guide’s incredible illustrations by Joseph Tomelleri, with their astonishing and true-to-life colors, and assumed by many on first glance to be photographs, are ample cause to reconsider. 

ISBN: 978-1-63398-162-1, paperback

Publish Date: July 11, 2023

Page Count: 372

Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 x 0.94"