Often their bodies can span two or three different holes, so you might find a tail before you find a head! The best sites in the Puget Sound are arguable Day Island Wall and Sund Rock. Wolf eel dens are often found in two different types of terrain – they are found in small holes in rock and clay walls (usually from a depth of 40-80ft), or they are found on rocky slopes with medium to large boulders in the holes between the boulders. Though relatively common, wolf eels can be difficult to spot for the inexperienced wolf eel spotter, and they are frequent at only a few sites around the Puget Sound. However, each fish has its own disposition – some get nervous and retreat into their holes.
Many wolf eels are curious about divers and can come out tor great you. The female coils around its eggs and takes care of them as they incubate, and the male will coil around the family and stand guard. When a wolf eel finds a mate, it will find a suitable home – usually a hole among boulders on a rocky reef – and mate for life, living in the same hole year after year. Though one might not expect it, wolf eels are actually very loving creatures. In fact, some wolf eels have been known to allow divers to play with them and pet them (though this might be exacerbated by a history of feeding them). Most actually have very friendly dispositions. They break these apart with their strong back molars.
Though predatory, most of their diet consists of shellfish like crabs and urchins. Despite the name, wolf eels are not true eels, though they do have long, slender bodies and sharp canines. Known fondly by divers as “wolfies,” wolf eels are the second most charismatic underwater creature accessible to divers in the Northwest (after the Giant Pacific Octopus).
In the Pacific Northwest, however, the debate has long been put to rest – everyone agrees that the world’s ugliest fish is the wolf eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus). Perhaps one of the oldest and greatest traditions of ocean-going folk is to debate which of the ocean’s vast selection of odd-ball creatures is the ugliest.
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