Crochet a Pacific Halibut: A Pattern From Glacier Bay National Park

A Pacific halibut starts out with an eye on each side of its head. When the fish is about an inch long, the left eye begins to move across the head until both eyes sit on the same side. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, which protects over 950 square miles of ocean habitat, shares a crochet pattern for a halibut of your own.

Hook your own halibut! NPS/H Burley.

The fish behind the pattern

Over 200 species of fish live in Glacier Bay, including the Pacific halibut. Virtually all halibut are right-eyed, meaning both eyes are on the dark upper side of the body. About 1 in 20,000 is left-eyed, with eyes and dark pigment on the left side. The pattern puts the safety eyes on the darker side of the crocheted fish, close together.

What you need

Ranger Hailey Burley wrote the pattern, rated easy to medium. The size is left open: pick the yarn and use the hook size recommended for it.

• a crochet hook
• yarn in one light and one dark color
• fiber fill
• a sewing needle
• safety eyes

How it is built

Each color gets its own body, worked from a magic ring. The first rows go around in the round, and from the third round on the work turns and goes back and forth on rows, using single, half double, double and treble crochet. Dorsal (top) and anal (bottom) fins are crocheted onto the body, working from the tail toward the head. Then everything is repeated in the second color. The NPS page gives the stitch-by-stitch instructions and an abbreviation key.

Putting it together

Image from the National Park Service's page.

1. Add the safety eyes to the darker side.
2. Pin the two halves together so they stay in place while sewing.
3. Cut a long piece of yarn in either color. The ranger's own halibut was stitched with brown yarn. Secure it at the base of the tail on top and sew the halves together with a mattress stitch, then stuff the tail slightly.
4. Sew across to the other side to keep more stuffing out of the tail, hiding the yarn color on the opposite side. This helps the body keep its shape.
5. Keep using the mattress stitch along the top of the dorsal fin, from the base near the tail to the end near the eyes. Then stitch the base of the fins together so they have no stuffing and stay flat.
6. Attach thread near the base of the bottom fin and repeat the process, stitching around the pelvic fin too. Stuff a little as you go, leaving space so no stuffing reaches the bottom fin.
7. Finish stuffing, but do not overfill, since the Pacific halibut is a flatfish. Stitch the head closed and fasten off.

Image from the National Park Service's page.

Sources

• National Park Service, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, "Halibut Crochet Pattern" (https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/halibut-crochet-pattern.htm); rewritten in hubnx's own words.