This is a Pacific Hagfish or "Slime Eel" as they are affectionately known. They
are, however, not truly an eel. These are dubbed an "experimental"
fishery, and tricky to capture. The toughest part of fishing for
Hagfish, though, is keeping them alive once they are on board the boat.
If they are upset or threatened, they give off a putrid slime that
effectively kills them no matter if they are kept in ice, or water, and
the slime itself clogs intakes so that circulation pumps and plumbing
similar to crab will not work, and often need replacing. Once they are
delivered to shore, they are foreign market bound. Korea is the main
importer of slime eels. These lively eels are newly offloaded to Da
Yang Seafoods, in a mixture of sea water and ice while they await
processing.
By Guest Blogger Liz McMaster, F/V Lady Laura
3 comments:
Truly interesting and weird. Does their slime hurt humans?
Not very appetizing to me and sounds like way too much work to get 'em and fix 'em.
I don't believe the slime hurts humans but it is gross and can hurt the fishing equipment.
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