Animalia Life

Anarrhichthys ocellatus
FAMILY
Anarhichadidae
TAXONOMY
Anarrhichthys ocellatus Ayres, 1855, San Francisco, California.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Pacific wolfeel.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Body eel-like. Dorsal and anal fins long and low, continuous with a small caudal fin. Pectoral fins large and fan-like. Pelvic fins absent. Background color blue, greenish, brown, or graybrown. The body and head are covered with white-lined black spots. Scales are small and rounded and embedded in the skin. There is no lateral line canal. The teeth in front are caninelike, and the rear teeth are molar-like. Juveniles are orangish brown, with spots more numerous and larger than in adults; the spots sometimes form into stripes. This is the largest zoarcoid, reaching 2.2 yd (203 cm).
DISTRIBUTION
Southeastern Bering Sea to off Imperial Beach, California. Records for the Sea of Japan or Kamchatka are erroneous.
HABITAT
Deep rocky reefs in caves or crevices. Juveniles are freeswimming for an extended period.
BEHAVIOR
Cryptic and solitary or lives with an apparent life-long mate in a den. It is a dusk and dawn predator but also feeds during the day. Territorial disputes occur with large individuals displacing mated pairs occasionally.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Stalking predator. Feeds mainly on hard-shelled invertebrates and occasionally fish. Wolf-eels grab their prey with their enlarged canines and crush it with their rear molars. Known prey consists of crabs, clams, mussels, sea urchins, sand dollars, snails, and abalone. A population of wolf eels at the head of the Monterey submarine canyon in California has relied on sand dollars at least seasonally, a food presumably rather low in nutrition for its bulk. Free-swimming juveniles eat plankton and small fish.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Pairs form at about four years of age (length about 3.3 ft [1 m]), and eggs are first laid at about seven years. Spawning occurs from October to February. Courtship consists of the male repeatedly bumping the female’s abdomen; when she is receptive he coils around her snake-like. Eggs are fertilized as they are laid in clumps of about 7,000–10,000, and the female gathers these up into a ball and wraps around them, occasionally turning them for aeration. Both parents guard the nest, and only one at a time leaves to forage. Hatching occurs at 13–16 weeks, depending on water temperature. Juveniles are freeswimming for up to two years, then settle on open bottom until they take up their sedentary den life.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened. This species is common and widespread along its range. A minor fishery exists among scuba divers, skiff fishermen, and bottom trawlers.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
The wolf-eel is a good eating fish, and the scuba and small boat fishery has been significant and sustained in some areas of central California and Puget Sound, Washington. Wolf-eel teeth have been found in a native American village site in central California, indicating a fishery at least 9,000 years old. Tribes in the Pacific Northwest reserved this delicacy for their shamans.

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