Cabezon (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus) is a saltwater species recorded in the United States. It is mainly found over reef, rocky, sand, mud, at depths of 0–200 m.
Scientific name: Scorpaenichthys marmoratus · Water: Saltwater
Size: up to 99 cm
Weight: up to 14 kg
The cabezon (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus) is the largest sculpin on the Pacific coast of North America, a big-headed, marbled fish whose flesh and internal organs can be blue or blue-green depending on its diet, growing to as much as 99 cm and 14 kg. It ranges from Sitka, Alaska, to Punta Abreojos in Baja California and sits on the tops of rocky ledges rather than on the sheer faces used by rockfish and lingcod, over rocky, muddy and sandy bottom and kelp beds from the shallows out to about 200 m, mostly inshore and within a small home range. It is a popular, hard-fighting United States sport fish from California north through Oregon, Washington and Alaska, taken from boats on bottom rigs baited with squid, crab or fish and also by shore anglers fishing jetties and rocky points; Americans simply call it cabezon, from the Spanish for "big head". Its flesh is good eating, but its eggs are poisonous and can make people violently ill; reports differ on the risk, so check an authoritative source before eating them.
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