Fish

Creatures of the Kelp Forest


Opaleye

The adult opaleyes have gray and green bodies with really cool eyes. The young opaleyes have blue backs and silvery bellies.

Moray Eel

Male grow up to 5 ft., and the females up to 4 ft. They are colored light to dark brown and green. Moray eels are the only eels without a pectoral fin.

Garibaldi

They can reach up to 14 inches, and are bright orange. They swim around rocky bottoms of the ocean, and are perch shaped fish. They are California's state fish and protected by law.

Halibut

They grow up to 5 feet in length and 72 pounds in weight. They are brownish green or black with dark blotches all over, and they have two eyes on one side.

Top smelt

They grow up to14 1/2 inches and are green/blue/silvery in color. They have a small mouth, seven fins, big eyes, eyes are even bigger than mouth.

Halfmoon

They grow up to 19 in. mature at 7 1/2 in,and are slate blue back with a silver belly.

Senorita

They are long and thin, and grow up to ten inches. They are different shades of orange, brown, or pink-yellow with a black spot on caudal fin.

Lobster

They grow up to 61 cm long, 15 cm high They areblue or light green, and red when cooked. They look like crayfish,but have no large claws.

Seahare

They are 16 inches long, 8 inches wide, and 8 inches high. They are very plump and soft. They are a reddish, brownish color with dark spots. The Sea Hare has some unique features, one of them is their defense. They shoot out purple dye and can blind their enemies. They also have big and pointy ears that look like rabbit ears.

Giant Kelpfish

They grow up to2 feet-16 1/2 inches, and are red, brown, and green. They have forked tails, and pointed snouts, silver streaks, can change colors from green, to red, to brown.

Sheephead

They can reach three feet, and they are slow growing. They reach five inches after one year, and eighteen inches after ten to twenty years. The males have been aged to 53 years old and the females to thirty years old. Males have a black head with a pink or red midriff. Females are pink with a white chin. The males also have dog like teeth. The young ones are gold or salmon with two black spots on the dorsal fin. They are really cute.

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Creatures of the Kelp Forest
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Questions or Comments
contact Mark Thompson at

hmarkt@aol.com