page_title: Northern wolffish
section_title: Characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Northern wolffish / Characteristics
caption_attribution_description: Requested by dive site, &lt;a href="http://www.skaphandrus.com" rel="nofollow"&gt;www.skaphandrus.com&lt;/a&gt;, to accompany their wolffish article. And by naturenplanet.com &lt;a href="http://www.naturenplanet.com/articles/1181/20120126/deep-sea-fish-communicating-sounds.htm" rel="nofollow"&gt;www.naturenplanet.com/articles/1181/20120126/deep-sea-fis...&lt;/a&gt; This picture is available to use for free, under the creative commons licence. All I ask is that I'm given a photo credit &amp; a courtesy email to let me know how it's being used.
context_page_description: The northern wolffish, or rock turbot, is a large marine fish of the family Anarhichadidae, native to the North Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean. Other common names include the bull-headed catfish, blue catfish, broad-headed catfish, jelly wolffish, and the Arctic wolffish. Inuit in the Western Arctic do not distinguish between the northern wolffish and the Bering wolffish, calling both by the name akoak or akoaksaluk.
  This fish, sometimes considered "charmingly ugly", is found across the North Atlantic Ocean from north of Russia to the Scotian Shelf, off Nova Scotia. Its western Atlantic population declined dramatically during the 1980s, in part because it is often caught by fishers seeking other catch. The population was observed to decline by more than 90% from the late 1970s through the early 1990s.
  This species has been identified as Threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. It is listed under the federal Species at Risk Act and was afforded protection under the SARA as of June 2004. Under the SARA, a recovery strategy must be developed for this species. Additional protection is afforded through the federal Fisheries Act.
context_section_description: Northern wolffish are demersal fish. In summer, mature females lay up to 30,000 extremely large eggs in a nest on the sea floor. Adults are observed to make limited movements and are not migratory. The northern wolffish favours open continental-shelf water that is cold, usually between 2 and 5 °C (36 and 41 °F), and mainly at depths between 400 and 1,000 metres (1,000 and 3,000 feet; 200 and 500 fathoms). The fish is thought to prefer a rocky or muddy sea floor, but is found over all types of ocean bottoms.
  Sharp teeth and powerful jaws allow the northern wolffish to capture moving (pelagic) fish, starfish, sea urchins, and crabs. They also include some bottom-dwelling (benthic) organisms in their diets. Their fearsome teeth, however, ensure they have few natural predators. They are not retained by fishermen for food because of their watery and jelly-like flesh.
  In the Canadian Arctic, northern wolffish occur primarily in Davis Strait, with their northernmost limit in Baffin Bay. A few records report them in the western Arctic, including as far west as Prince Patrick Island, NWT. In the North Atlantic, they are found on both sides of the ocean, from southern Newfoundland to the Barents Sea. In Canada, they occur primarily off the northeast Newfoundland/Labrador Shelf and the outer Grand Banks.
caption: Captive northern wolffish at Chessington Sealife Centre
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-H7", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:08:01 14:00:40", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "256", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-H7", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2008:08:01 14:00:40", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9376", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10765", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Action", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:08:01 14:00:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:08:01 14:00:40", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "23/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "63/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2448", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9170", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}