Hi everyone,

I shared a few of your serious and silly questions with fish expert Dr. Gene S. Helfman. He was kind enough to take time away from writing his latest book about fishes to help us appreciate the hagfish and give us a few laughs.  

   Jake, the SeaDog

 PS. If you think the Hagfish  is the true beauty of Hagfish Day, vote for it in our Ugly-Beauty contest!

 

 

Dr. Helfman, why should hagfish have their own holiday?
There are over 28,000 different kinds of fishes.  Most people can only name a dozen or so.  By making a fuss over hagfish, or goblin sharks, or lumpsuckers, we remind people that the biological world is much more complex and fascinating than we usually think.  And that makes us appreciate and care about nature more.

Let's settle this whole slime thing. People exaggerate about the buckets of slime, right?  No, it's true. No other animal can produce as much slime as a hagfish. The slime serves many purposes.  (*Read about slime on the Fishin' for Facts Hagfish page).

Is the hagfish ugly, misunderstood, or…something else?
It’s certainly not ugly to another hagfish.  Can you imagine what we look like to them? Two big bulging eyes, square teeth, our mouth all wrong and horizontal, a bulb of a nose instead of several slender tentacles.  And what’s all that long, furry stuff on top of your head where nice smooth skin ought to be?

Why is a hagfish cooler than a great white shark?
Great white sharks are actually warm-blooded.  Because of a very special arrangement of their blood vessels, they are able to keep their body temperature a few degrees warmer than the water outside.  Hagfish are the same temperature as their surroundings, which is usually very cold water. (JGet it? Cooler...?Ya gotta love scientists, they're very literal! )

Hagfish are also 'cooler than a great white' because they can go many months without feeding, and hagfish can tie themselves in knots.  White sharks can’t do either.

The first time I saw a close-up photo of a hagfish I threw up a little in my mouth….is that normal?
Funny.  I have the same reaction to women wearing too much make-up.

Seriously, since everyone seems so repulsed by the hagfish should I worry about hagfish self-esteem…and populations?
Hagfish are an important scavenger in deep, cold waters around the world.  They play the same role in marine ecosystems that vultures and the like play on land, turning carcasses into nutrients that can be used by plants.  Without them, dead things would just lie on the bottom for months with all their valuable nutrients locked up and unavailable.  We (including other sea creatures) would starve.

How long have you been studying hagfish?
I’ve been studying eel-like fishes for decades, so the hagfish was an obvious subject for me. (Did you know eels can move backwards and forwards with equal ease?  “Normal” fish can’t do that, and some like tunas and sharks can’t even go in reverse.)

Did you really taste the slime? Why? What does it taste like? Will I see it on the food channel as the “new ketchup”? Did you need an extra-large breath mint after tasting it?
People had suggested that the slime tasted bad, which made hagfish undesirable to predators.  Nobody (to my knowledge) had tested this idea.  That’s what scientists are supposed to do -- so I did. Actually, the slime had no taste at all, maybe a little salty, but that could have been the sea water the fish had been living in. Of course, I have different taste buds that most hagfish predators, so there might have been something there I couldn't taste.  ...About the mint...My wife said my breath was no worse than usual.)

Now that I think about the hagfish’s diet…perhaps my planned burial at sea isn't such a noble plan, is it?  
As a biologist, I like the idea of my carbon and nitrogen atoms going back into the food web after I die, so scavengers don’t creep me out.  The idea of being embalmed and put in a sealed casket in the ground is much scarier and certainly isn’t very ecological.  Maybe my atoms will wind up as part of a great white shark, or blue whale, or maybe just maybe, a hagfish.

Finally, and most importantly, how can I help hagfish?
By being concerned about a healthy marine environment.  Do all those things that we know are good for the environment, like recycling, avoid polluting, and using less energy, especially fossil fuels.  Most importantly, encourage your friends and family to do the same.  And if you see hagfish on the menu, order the halibut instead.

**A special thanks to Dr. Helfman  for allowing us use his extraordinary photos and taking the time to talk hagfish with us.

Fascinated by hagfish. Learn more about them on our Fishin' for Facts: Hagfish page and read Dr. Jeffrey's Drazen's Q&A

Don't forget to buy a copy of Dr. Helfman's cool new book:  Fishes: The Animal Answer Guide, by Gene Helfman and Bruce Collette

Don't forget to celebrate WhaleTimes' Hagfish Day™ October 19, 2011. Then, October 17, 201...then....

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