Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 14/01) - The Northern Wolffish is a new addition to Canada's threatened species list, but it's so ugly that it's hard to find anyone who cares.
"It's the ugliest thing around," says Suzanne Carriere, a biologist who works for the territorial government.
Carriere and Peter Cott, a federal fisheries biologist, say that very little is known about the bottom-dwelling loner that even other fish leave alone.
With four rows of "pretty crazy" upper teeth and powerful jaws to rip and crunch shells, it seems to prefer eating sea urchin, crab and starfish.
"I don't know how they'd find a mate. It's not a common fish to begin with," Cott said.
Inuit who live in the fish's Arctic range have never thought much of it for food because of it's watery and jelly-like flesh, but it has always been considered rare.
Only one has ever been caught in with the NWT's current maritime boundaries, and Carriere worries about what its decline might signal.
"In the North we're the keepers of the survivors of many species. We have what's left so we have to be careful," she said.
Cott says little is known about other animal species in the North, and "that could represent a problem with all the oil and gas development being proposed."
The northern wolffish and a related species, the spotted wolffish, are the first fish in Canada to ever be listed as threatened. The rating is not as serious as endangered.
