"The discovery of a new fish is something I never thought would happen in my career because it's very rare in the United States," Michael Young, a research fisheries biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, told Reuters.

The differences between this species and it's distant relation are fairly minor at first glance — slightly different measurements of their head and pelvis, and differences in the arrangement of a row of pores between their anal fin and their tail fin. They also have a small, skin-covered spine just in front of their gills, and while many species of sculpin have these 'preopercular spines', this is apparently something the other species of sculpin in the area don't have.