Charles Haskins Townsend (September 29, 1859 – January 28, 1944) was an American zoologist and naturalist who served as the director of the New York Aquarium, from 1902 to 1937.

[3] In 1883, he became assistant United States Fish Commissioner in charge of salmon propagation in California.

[1] He is commemorated in the names of Townsend's shearwater and the Guadalupe fur seal (Arctophoca townsendi).

[5] He wrote extensively on fisheries, whaling, fur seals, deep-sea exploration and zoology, including ornithology and herpetology.

With Hugh McCormick Smith he wrote The Pacific Salmons section of Trout and Salmon (New York: Macmillan, 1902), a volume of Caspar Whitney's prestigious American Sportsman's Library.