Yarrell's blenny
(Chirolophis ascanii)

Northeast Atlantic: Norwegian coast to Finmarken and Waranger Fjord, occasionally Murman coast, rare in Skagerrak, Kattegat and Öresund, around Helgoland, also British Isles; also the Orkneys, Faroes, Shetlands and Iceland.

Northwest Atlantic: Canada.

Max length: 25.cm SL

Dorsal spines (total): 50 - 54; Dorsal soft rays (total): 0; Anal soft rays: 35 - 40.

Snout blunt; mouth frog-like. With a large fringed tentacle above each eye, a smaller one in front and others on top of head and on the anterior dorsal fin spines. First anal fin ray a short flexible spine. Lateral line represented by a dorsal and a mediolateral branch of neuromasts (the former begins as a short canal, with 4-5 pores.

Usually over rocks and among seaweeds, never in intertidal zone, at 20 m, but descends from 100-280 m. Benthic. Feeds on bottom invertebrates (small mollusks, polychaetes, hydroids, sponges), also algae. Spawns in October - December.