The Wolf Eel is one of the most interesting species found in the Pacific Northwest waters. These eels are easy to identify, when young, their coloration is a burnt orange-spotted look that gradually changes into a dominant gray for males and brown for females.
They can be found from the Aleutian Islands all the way to Southern California. They live from barely subtidal waters to 100 m. The copper bluffs on Quadra Island are one of the best sites in the Pacific Northwest in which the wolf eel can be found.
Their jaw is powerful enough to crush shellfish and crabs. This eel feeds on invertebrates with hard shells (crustaceans, sea urchins, mussels, clams) and some fishes, crushing them with its strong jaws. It has been observed in captivity that when they are fed soft food such as squid or octopus, they tend to prefer this over hard food, which can damage the back teeth. They must be able to catch a few of these as they go about life. So lets ad this as a possible source of food in the wild.
Males and females form pairs at about 4 years of age but don’t reach maturity and produce eggs until 7 or 8 years of age. Spawning takes place from October into late winter. Wolf eel’s mate for life. They will live in the same cave. They reproduce from October until the end of winter. The male puts his head against the female’s abdomen and wraps around her, while she extrudes the eggs which he then fertilizes. The female will lay up to 10,000 eggs at a time with the male fertilizing them. They then wrap themselves around the eggs and guard the eggs for about 13 to 16 weeks until they hatch.