Tag Archives: Hagfish
Meet the Hagfish, the Slime-Spewing Star of Maine’s Nastiest Little Fishery
The first time Vinalhaven lobsterboat captain Frank Thompson trapped hagfish in the Gulf of Maine, the pinkish-gray, snakelike animals popped the hatch off his hold — with their slime. When stressed or attacked, a single 20-inch-long hagfish spews a quart of stringy, suffocating snot in less than a second, and the stuff rapidly expands as it mixes with seawater. It was May 2009, and Thompson’s 48-foot boat was carrying 2,800 pounds of hagfish — that’s roughly 5,000 fish oozing copious slime from their skins. Unable to escape their own goop, many of the fish were dead when Thompson unloaded his catch in Gloucester, Massachusetts. >click to read< 17:24
The name is hagfish but you can call it a ‘slime eel.’ Meet a new Alaska fishery.
Consider the hagfish. Maybe you’ve never heard of these deep ocean creatures, also called “slime eels” for their eel-like appearance and ability to secrete huge amounts of opaque slime. Not exactly a mouth-watering description at first glance; yet over the past two years, a small-scale effort has developed in Southeast Alaska to harvest these fascinating uggos as a fledgling Alaska fishery. That’s unusual news in a state where most fishery resources are already developed. >click to read<18:53
‘Slime eel’ massacre caused by Washington man’s boat accident, lawsuit says
An Oregon boater is in a bit of a mess after he caused thousands of pounds of live “slime eels” to die, according to a lawsuit from the company that planned to sell the hagfish to Asia consumers.
Darin Rodabaugh is accused of negligence in a lawsuit from AA Seafood of Depoe Bay. The lawsuit claims Rodabaugh, from Kennewick, Washington, was pulling his boat out of the water at the Port of Depoe Bay on Sept. 10, 2016, and didn’t lower the antenna or mast.,,But more importantly to AA Seafood, it knocked out the power to the warehouse where the company stored 16,400 pounds of live hagfish.,,, This quiet industry went largely unnoticed until 2017 when a truck from AA Seafood carrying 7,500 pounds of live hagfish lost several containers along U.S. 101 near Cape Foulweather about 3 miles south of Depoe Bay. photo’s >click to read<13:39
Don Cuddy: Local crab fisherman finds a niche market with slime eels
Slime eel, it’s what’s for dinner. Well perhaps not on menus around here but in South Korea ‘ggomjangeo’ is extremely popular and, barbecued, is sold on the street like hot dogs. With scant recognition a fishery for these scavenging bottom dwellers has been prosecuted in New England for the past 40 years. Hagfish, as they are also known, are primitive deep-sea creatures and reputedly the only living creature with a skull but no vertebrae, although, given recent events, there may be some elected officials who could potentially rival that claim. Atlantic Red Crab company founder Jon Williams has been fishing these eels since 1999.,, >click here to read< 20:02 
Hagfish “slime eels,” might be North Olympic Peninsula’s next fishery boon
A new, relatively untapped fishery is growing on the North Olympic Peninsula, with at least two fish distributors planning to expand hagfish operations to supply Asian markets. Hagfish, also known as “slime eels,” are not eaten in the U.S. but are a popular food in South Korea, Brandt Koo, general manager of Five Ocean Seafoods Inc., told Port of Port Angeles commissioners last week. continued
