FAUNA OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS AND ALASKA PENINSULA 403 



It is a bizarre little fish, colored bright grass green over the entire 

 body, matching the sea lettuce (Ulva) among which it lives. The 

 webs of the fins are transparent, with yellow at the base. There is 

 a little silver color on the jaws; otherwise, the body is uniformly 

 green. Another bullhead, Oligocottus, is also commonly green. 



Phallocottus obtusus, a cottoid taken on Igitkin Island, was the 

 basis for the description of a new species and genus by Schultz 

 (1939). 



Pallasina barbata, a sea poacher, is a very slender fish with a 

 long sturgeon-like snout. Specimens about 5 inches long were 

 taken in a seine haul in the surf at Umnak Island. 



Pholis laetas is one of the many blennies that inhabit the tide 

 pools. It is a small, smooth fish, shaped like a slender cigar; it is 

 yellowish with a series of paired transverse black bands on the 

 dorsal surface. 



Platichthys stellatus was taken only at Unimak Island. The 

 starry flounder is said by Evermann and Goldsborough (1907) to 

 be the most abundant and most widely-distributed flounder in 

 Alaska. It has black spots along both dorsal and ventral fins, and 

 is unlike other species in the North Pacific. It swims with its left 

 side up. 





Figure 25. — Atka mackerel, Pleuro grammas monopterygius. Attu Island, 



August 16, 1938. 



Pleurogrammus monopterygius, the Atka or Attu mackerel, 

 occurs along the Aleutian chain, but apparently it is most abundant 

 near the west end (fig. 25). At the mouth of Chichagof Harbor, 

 Attu Island, we were able to look down into the clear water and 

 see dozens of Atka mackerel swimming among the kelp fronds. 



