![]() These are not particularly handsome fish and have strong jaws with very strong conical canines and molars. It is thought that wolf-eels mate for life. They are egg layers and will line the back of their dens with a large gelatinous egg mass, and both the male and female will guard the nest until their young hatch. Wolf-eels spend much of the day in their dens and are mostly overlooked by divers, although sometimes they may “porch sit.” At night they become active and leave their dens to hunt. They are occasionally found at the more northern of the Channel Islands-Santa Rosa and San Miguel. There is a large population at North Farallon Island, and they are sometimes seen at the Barge, and at Eric’s Pinnacle in Monterey. Although, wolf-eels are most reliably found at many dive sites in British Columbia, they tend to move around somewhat, and in California there is no guaranteed place to spot them. They may be found from the Sea of Japan to the Aleutian Islands to Southern California. Mature males can be distinguished from females by their flabby, lumpy heads. All have dark-centered eye-like spots along their bodies. They are mostly shades of gray, but some are brownish. The California wolf-eels can grow to be up to eight feet long and is the longest member of their family. Wolf-eels are more closely related to our surfperches and fresh water perches than true eels, and should more precisely be called wolffishes. Moray eels belong to the order Anguilliformes, the true eels and the family Muraenidae, the moray eels. The scientific name for our California wolf-eel is Anarrhichthys ocellatus, which is Latin for “fish with eye-like spots.” Although they superficially resemble moray eels they are not at all related. This family has five species in two genera. Wolf-eels belong to the order Perciformes, the perch-like fish and the family Anarhichadidae, the wolffishes. They are also one of the most misunderstood California fish, and even though they may look like an eel, they are not. Wolf-eels are a particularly shy fish and spend most of the day back in their dens unseen. I’m not sure which one of us was more startled. At the widest point I flashed my light back into the darkness, and one of the most hideous faces in the ocean stared back at me, a wolf-eel. #The wolf eel fullThe crack was full of life and the critters I discovered became increasing larger as I neared the bottom. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution 1998: 253-270.I descended down a sheer granite wall, following a narrow, but ever widening crack. In: Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 12: Plateau. Miller J: Middle Columbia River Salishans. New York: American Museum of Natural History 1991: 140-153.ĥ. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.: J.J. In: Inidan Notes and Monographs No 59 Notes on the Ethonology of the Indians of Puget Sound. Waterman TT: Hunting Implements, Nets and Traps. In: The native tribes of British Columbia. Ravenhill A: Chief Sources of Food Supply. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution 1990: 391-397.Ģ. In: Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast. Arima E, Dewhirst J: Nootkans of Vancouver Island. Middle Columbia River Salish used willow dip nets. The device was baited, placed in the water and when the eel swallowed the bait, the fisherman tugged on the line, causing the splinter to lodge crosswise in the eel’s throat. The hook was a bone splinter sharpened at both ends and was attached at the middle to the line. Indigenous Peoples of Puget Sound caught wolf-eel with a hook attached to a line. The Indigenous Peoples of Puget Sound, Salish of the Middle Columbia River, Nootka (Nuu-chah-nulth) of Vancouver Island, Kootenai and Tlingit, are reported to have eaten wolf-eel, catching the fish with straight-shanked angled hooks and/or gorges. ![]()
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