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Sea Creatures Guide: Sea Creature List, Sell Price
Sea creatures are the critters you catch while diving for clams in the ocean. This guide brings together the sea creature list, where each one shows up, how donating to the Museum works, and the sell prices that turn a good dive into Bells.
Looking for something specific?
- Diving Guide — how to work the shallows and the deeper water.
- Sea Creature List — every creature you can hook, with its location and sell price.
- Donating to the Museum — what happens to a donated specimen.
- Sell Prices — turning catches into Bells.
Diving Guide
Everything starts with the diving animation. Take a swim and watch your character dive; when a shadow passes overhead, press the action button to snap up whatever is swimming below. The deeper you dive, the rarer the catch tends to be, and the rarer the creature, the more Bells it is worth when you sell it or hand it over to a villager.
Keep an eye on your stamina while you dive, and come back to the surface to recover before going under again. Because the sea creature list changes as the seasons and the weather shift, it is worth keeping this guide open while you work through it.
Sea Creature List
Below is the sea creature list with the place each critter is most often found and what it fetches at the counter. Prices shown are the standard sell values.
| Sea creature | Where to find it | Sell price |
|---|---|---|
| Clam | Shallow water, by digging up sand | 90 Bells |
| Scallop | Shallow sandy spots | 800 Bells |
| Sea cucumber | Flat sand, sometimes near seaweed | 200 Bells |
| Sea urchin | Rocky shallows | 300 Bells |
| Horsehoe crab | Shallow water, near the shore | 300 Bells |
| Starfish | Shallow sandy areas | 500 Bells |
| Oyster | Shallow water | 600 Bells |
| Mussel | Rocky water | 800 Bells |
| Snail | Wet sand after rain | 700 Bells |
| Octopus | Deep water, and only while it rains | 1,200 Bells |
| Squid | Deep water at night | 1,900 Bells |
| Sea butterfly | Deep water while it rains | 3,000 Bells |
| Ray | Deep water | 5,000 Bells |
| Eel | Deep water, and only while it rains | 9,000 Bells |
| Shark | Deep water, and only while it rains | 12,000 Bells |
Donating to the Museum
A caught sea creature can go to the Museum instead of the shop counter. Take the catch to Blathers at the counter and choose the donation option: the Bells you would have earned go into the museum's donation box, and Blathers adds the specimen to the display with a short note about it.
Donating completes a fish or creature in your own collection too, which means a second specimen of the same creature has more value than the first when it is handed over.
Sea creatures are the critters you catch while diving for clams in the ocean, and keeping track of them is a steady habit for any player who wants Bells without grinding on land. This guide pulls the whole set into one place, pairing each creature with the water where it shows up and the price it fetches when you hand it over. Reading through the list helps you plan a route before you dive, so you know which spots are worth visiting and which holes in the seafloor only hold common catches.
Donating to the Museum is the natural companion to a good dive, since every creature you donate is recorded and sets you on the path toward completing the collection. Because progress is measured by what you have given rather than what you keep, working out the museum side of things changes how you approach a session. A donated fish still counts toward your goals, so the choice between selling for Bells and contributing to the collection becomes a decision you make deliberately instead of by accident.
Knowing where each creature lives matters more than it first appears. Shallow water and the deeper pools do not offer the same catches, so a creature that seems rare may simply be hiding in a place you have not dived yet. Working from a full list lets you map out the ocean area by area, comparing what a shallow sweep returns with what a deeper dive produces. That way your time underwater goes further, and each trip feels like it moves the collection forward.
Sell prices are what turn a productive dive into Bells, and they vary widely between everyday catches and the rarer finds that make a session feel worthwhile. Holding onto everything slows you down, so deciding what to sell and what to donate keeps your pockets full and your museum progress moving at the same time. Pair this guide with the diving overview for how to work the shallows and the deeper water, and you will have a clear picture of the sea creature list, its locations, and what each catch is worth.
Sell Prices
For the most reliable Bells, sell the catch to a shop such as Nook's Cranny. A good rule of thumb is that common shellfish pay in the hundreds of Bells, while the deep-water and rain-dependent catches climb into the thousands. Rare specimens are worth donating or gifting to a villager instead of selling outright, since a villager will pay well above the shop price for one they want.
Keep a note of what you have already donated so you do not hand over a duplicate by mistake, and work the shallows for a steady income before you chase the deeper, higher-paying creatures.