It isn’t known whether or not Theodor Seuss Geisel was thinking of the ichthyological diversity to be found in the Pacific Northwest’s Salish Sea when declaring “Say, what a lot of fish there are” in the opening of his now classic book “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish,” but it would be entirely understandable if he had been.
How many species of freshwater fishes inhabit the rivers, lakes, and streams of Oregon? Interestingly enough, scientific opinions differ on this question. However whatever the actual number may be, Douglas F. Markle’s new A Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Oregon contains images and aides to the identification of most of them.