This fish has the typical sculpin body plan with
large eyes and well developed pectoral fins. Its body is elongate with a wide
head and tapers to a slim caudal peduncle. This species is very hard to distinguish
from other sculpins except that there is no slit behind its last gill arch. Hookear
sculpin also lack a slit behind the gill arch, but the spatulate sculpin is unique
in that it has a forked spine below the eye and in front of the gill cover. The
dorsal fin often has two large black blotches and the rest of the body is coloured
a mottled black and yellow.
This species has a circumpolar distribution, with individuals having been collected
in the Bering Sea, Kara Sea, Ungava Bay, off Labrador, eastern Baffin Island,
and West Greenland.
