Pacific Hagfish
The Pacific hagfish (Eptatretus stoutii) is a jawless, eel-shaped scavenger of the seafloor in the eastern Pacific. Like the Atlantic hagfish, it defends itself with huge amounts of slime.
The Pacific hagfish (Eptatretus stoutii) is a jawless, eel-shaped scavenger of the seafloor in the eastern Pacific. Like the Atlantic hagfish, it defends itself with huge amounts of slime.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Pacific Hagfish in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Vertebrates lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
Many Gill Pouches
Unlike the single pair of gill openings in Atlantic hagfish, the Pacific hagfish has a row of 10 to 14 gill pouches on each side. The species also has rudimentary eyes and tentacle-like barbels around the mouth.
Slime and Scavenging
The slime contains protein threads that expand in seawater and clog a predator's gills. Hagfish burrow into dead fish and whales and feed from the inside.
Fisheries
Hagfish are caught for their skin, which is used in "eel-skin" leather, and for export for food in Korea. See Atlantic Hagfish.
Pacific Hagfish at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Eptatretus stoutii |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Myxini |
| Order | Myxiniformes |
| Family | Myxinidae |
| Field Guide group | Marine and Freshwater Fish |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Pinkish eel-shaped scavenger with no eyes visible through the skin, tentacles around a toothed tongue plate, and slime glands that can fill a bucket. |
| IUCN Red List status | Data Deficient (DD), assessed 2011 |
| Class | Myxini |
| Gill pouches | 10 to 14 pairs |