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Kooky, Rare Fish from the Deep Shows on Oregon Coast Beach

Photos by Tiffany Boothe, Seaside Aquarium

(Seaside, Oregon) – It’s as comical and cute as it is bizarre, and even a little hideous at the same time. It’s a rare find for something that washes up alive, and the Seaside Aquarium now boasts another strange fish in its possession – one that normally lives rather deep in the ocean, and hardly ever shows up on land.

A group of kids from Oregon City brought in a Spotted Ratfish Saturday, which they had found on the southern cove area of Seaside. The creature is three feet long and was still alive. “They brought it up to a lifeguard at one of the stations and asked what to do with it,” said aquarium spokesperson Tiffany Boothe. “They told them to bring it here.”

The spotted ratfish’s technical name is Hydrolagus colliei, and is named a ratfish for its rat-like appearance. It is sometimes called a rabbit fish because of the visual similarity there as well. It exists between SE Alaska and Baha, California, normally living at depths of 3,000 feet, although it is found in shallower waters off the Oregon coast, at around 15 feet to 65 feet.

“Fishermen sometimes bring them in here when they accidentally catch them,” Boothe said. “We’ve had them in here before. But it’s really very rare they wash up on the beach.”

Boothe said the ratfish had a visible sore on one of its fins, and she believes it will die. “At one point, it got stuck upside down and couldn’t right itself,” Boothe said. “If it was in the wild and that happened, then it would pretty much be eaten pretty fast. It wouldn’t survive.

“But it may live now that it’s in captivity. Maybe all it needs is some rest and the sore will heal. If it does live, we’ll put it on display. But we won’t do that now, while it’s in the state it’s in.”

Boothe said “Hydrolagus” means water hare in greek, because of that rabbit-like appearance again. “Colliei” honors M. Collie, a naturalist.

The odd but somewhat endearing fish appeared to enjoy the spotlight a bit as Boothe photographed it in its holding tank. Beforehand, it simply lay quietly on the bottom, but floated near the surface and almost seemed to pose as Boothe clicked away. Depending on the angle, it could resemble a duck or some somewhat familiar Disney cartoon character.

A ratfish’s skin has no scales, but has some white spots amidst the usual brown. The males have a tenaculum, a club-like structure in their foreheads. There are pits all over the front snout area which are used for detecting electrical fields.

This could be why it seemed attracted to Boothe’s camera and flash.

Boothe determined this one was a male.

“They live in a wide variety of habitats, including sand, mud, rocky reefs,” Boothe said. “They also feed on a lot of different kind of invertebrates. They’ll eat worms, brittlestars, sea stars, clams and shrimp. But in turn they’re eaten by sharks, dogfish, halibut, elephant seals and fur seals.”

The ratfish prefers deeper waters when it can, but also requires warmth. So it’s found in the seas off the California coast, but shallower waters in this area and around British Columbia.

They make their inshore migrations at night in the Puget Sound area. There, and around California, they move to shallow waters in spring and return to the deep in summer and fall.

Boothe said one was found drifting around a Columbia River estuary once, apparently quite lost.

Their spines are slightly poisonous, but the toxin doesn’t affect everyone. Eating their ovaries is also dangerous as they are quite toxic. Otherwise the fish is edible, with a reportedly bland, slightly mushy taste.

Many of their parts have been found in native shell middens in the Washington area.

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