Spotted Ratfish

Check out this incredible creature.

Usually a deep water species they come into shallower waters during the hight of spawning season during late summer or early autumn months. They have a torpedo shaped body with a long tapering tail using their mostly their pectoral fins to glide along the bottom.

Their eyes are excellent for seeing in the dark waters of the deep ocean. When they come into the shallows, if you shine a light into the ocean you can see them glowing green as the light is reflected, much like cat eyes.

They lay torpedo shaped eggs in tough but flexible cases which lay on the bottom while the young develop, this can take up to a year.

Ratfish don’t have scales or even dermal denticles like sharks, they have soft, shiny skin which to me looks like it is riveted plates of brushed steel. While they might look like an easy snack for sea lions or other predators, they have a serrated venomous spine in the front of their dorsal fin which can cause a lot of damage.

These creatures are like no others, they split from sharks and rays 400 million years ago, have traces of a third pair of limbs (unique among vertebrates), males have their sex organ on their forehead (called a  tenaculum), instead of teeth they have 3 grinding tooth plates and while they are cartilaginous they have gill covers like bony fishes.

Check out Fishes of the Salish Sea, Putsch & Orr for more info on our incredible marine neighbours.