There are reasons to go for hagfish each year as it offers a handful of Maine fishermen a supplemental fishery to accompany lobster or crab. Hagfish doesn’t compare to lobster in price, fisherman fetches $0.85 a pound for them if he freezes them himself, but they’re easy to catch. All you need is rope, weighted drums, rotten bait and a strong stomach.
Hagfish are legendary for excreting gallons of nauseating slime when stressed. Even when they’re un-slimed, they aren’t the most appetizing fish in the sea. They’re only popular for use in select Korean cuisine and for leather. The vast majority of hagfish caught are exported to South Korea.
The relatively-new hagfish fishery is small enough to fly under the regulatory radar. No statistics are available for 2009 because only two dealers reported to the state, below the privacy threshold for public records. No license is required for fishing hagfish, so it’s impossible to know how many Maine boats are dedicated to the fishery.
Some conservationists are concerned that the hagfish fishery is in danger of depleting an aquatic resource before the resource’s importance is fully understood. Scientists have more questions than answers about the hagfish, but they do know the fish play an important role in recycling nutrients on the ocean floor. Anne Beaudreau, a researcher at the University of Washington, said that there simply isn’t enough staff to regulate all species that are being fished in small amounts.
