Wolf Eel – Anarrhichthys ocellatus
Here is a Friday funny fish face. This is a Wolf Eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus), from British Columbia.
I have been featuring mostly tropical images on the blog lately, and figured it was time to share some stuff from my backyard. This Wolf Eel image was captured at Clark Rock, just off Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island.
I’ve only seen a couple of wolfies in all my cold water diving – and this is the only one that I have had the opportunity to photograph, so far. And I only got this one image before he disappeared into his hole.
These eels truly are, as the French say, joli-laid (beautifully ugly). They are reclusive creatures, living in dens in the rocks, and apparently mate for life. On a diver’s approach, they tend to recede into their lairs – I’ve heard of divers successfully coaxing them out by hand feeding them urchin bits (their food of choice – they can tear apart a spiky urchin with those big jaws). The juveniles (which I have never seen) are remarkably different – bright orange with brown blotches. Adults can grow up to about 7 feet in length.
About Judy G Diver
Born and raised on the west coast of Canada, I have always felt a strong connection to the sea. But for many years, I stayed on the surface, afraid of what lurked down deep. When I was in my early 30's, with three young children (aka the P's), my husband (aka Mr G) signed us up for a SCUBA certification course, as a surprise. Although I had my fears, my stubbornness prevailed, and somehow I made it through four murky, frigid, cold water dives in Vancouver to successfully pass the course. Soon after we went diving off the west coast of Mexico, in the Sea of Cortez, where my eyes were opened to the beauty and other-worldliness of the life down under.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
I currently have well over 2000 dives under the belt, and I have been fortunate to travel and dive in Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Fiji, Palau, Philippines, Galapagos, Costa Rica, Hawaii, California, Egypt, Mexico, several islands in the Caribbean, and here in British Columbia.
In addition to this blog and my personal website (Awoosh.com/Directory), which is linked at the top of the blog, my stuff has been published in a variety of magazines and websites, including a regular monthly feature for Scubadiving Magazine for several years. All links to this work can be found in this blog.
