Three-spined Stickleback - Habitat and Distribution

Habitat and Distribution

The threespine stickleback is found only in the Northern Hemisphere, where it usually inhabits coastal waters or freshwater bodies well connected (or once well connected) to the coasts. It can live in either fresh, brackish or salt water. It prefers slow-flowing water with areas of emerging vegetation. It can therefore be found in ditches, ponds, lakes, backwaters, quiet rivers, sheltered bays, marshes, and harbours.

In North America, it ranges along the East Coast from Chesapeake Bay to the southern half of Baffin Island and the western shore of Hudson Bay, and along the West Coast from southern California to the western shore of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. It can be found throughout Europe between 35°N and 70°N. In Asia, the distribution stretches from Japan and the Korean peninsula to the Bering Straits.

Its distribution could be said to be circumpolar if it was not for the fact that it is absent from the north coast of Siberia, the north coast of Alaska, and the Arctic islands of Canada.