[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to Freaky Fana Friday, where every Friday we take a little time and explore some of the freaks of nature from around the planet.

[SPEAKER_02]: We cherish so deeply.

[SPEAKER_02]: So please, jump aboard and let's explore the wilds together.

[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to Freaky Fana Friday.

[SPEAKER_03]: I am the great and peaceful mystery [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm Jay, ah, and today we're going to talk about the bearing wolf fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: The bearing wolf fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know what a wolf fish is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think we see them at the pet store, didn't we?

[SPEAKER_03]: I know.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's that?

[SPEAKER_01]: was a wolf.

[SPEAKER_03]: You know, okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, you have seen a bearing, or not a bearing wolfish, a wolfish, but there is another animal in South America and fresh water that shares the name wolfish.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: We're not talking about, some people call wolf eels, they're not eels though, so they're fish, like eels are fish, but right, right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Those are a group of animals.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, eels are their own.

[SPEAKER_03]: You've taken the aquarium, or in some zoos have them, well, at least some species of wolfish.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, like it feels like aquarium is in the aquarium at the zoo.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, not okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not a pet store.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Is there salt water deep water fish?

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that'd be rough to keep it a pet store.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Here's one of the eat boots.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it's just like the thing that's not a giant heads that can bite right through you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, from Mario, remember like that big eel thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I guess Mario 64.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so the bearing will fish or will feel.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, will fish eel is a fascinating creature that happens to cold wires of the northern Pacific.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's massive like in both appearance and behavior.

[SPEAKER_03]: Let's got this big oversized head with these giant canine teeth that hang outside its face.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: And giant muscles to go with it.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, these fish are often overlooked due to their less than a clean buoyant aesthetic compared to more colorful marine species.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: They just look like big monster and early monsters, but they're really cool.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think they're beautiful.

[SPEAKER_03]: However, there is much more than beneath the surface to the wolffish, the bearing wolffish.

[SPEAKER_03]: It is, we're gonna explore it.

[SPEAKER_03]: This unique species for its physical characteristics and its ecological significance.

[SPEAKER_03]: Say that four times fast, ecological significance.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ecological, significant, just once.

[SPEAKER_03]: The bearing wolffish is mostly found in, [SPEAKER_01]: the, uh, well, the water, the bearing straits, the bearing sea.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's so okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So up by Alaska.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, in between Alaska and Russia.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: And the adjacent waters.

[SPEAKER_03]: It serves as an important predator for these marine ecosystems.

[SPEAKER_03]: The species thrives in this cold, abendink environments, referring rocky substrate in very deep water.

[SPEAKER_03]: They are well-known for their rugged appearance and their impressive adaptations to help them survive in such harsh aquatic conditions.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to say, wouldn't the bearing stray or the sea known for being like not good?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like harsh, so terrible to navigate.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's the bearing, so a Patreon member posted this, and I forgot to ask.

[SPEAKER_03]: If I could use their names, I won't use their name.

[SPEAKER_03]: If I can use your name, I will update it next week for this submission, but they worked on a ship and see these guys a lot in the bearing straits when they'd hold them.

[SPEAKER_01]: These bearing will fields?

[SPEAKER_03]: Wow!

[SPEAKER_03]: But those jobs up there, so I almost had the job in Alaska being a Creel, like a Creel survey clerk on a fishing boat.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, it has the highest mortality rate of pretty much any job in the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, uh, those are the last can crab vision in that show that this catch.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember I'm talking about that.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's like five or even 10% of the people die a year and sane.

[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, there's, you know, a couple, only a couple hundred people doing it, but you know, it's good, it's good money, good living.

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, you, it's honest living.

[SPEAKER_03]: If the crabs are good, you can make like 40 or 50 grand in, you know, three months.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's crazy.

[SPEAKER_03]: And you don't have to work the rest of your.

[SPEAKER_03]: That'd be nice.

[SPEAKER_03]: But then the month you're working or three months you're working is literal.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're going to die.

[SPEAKER_03]: You slide off the ship.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're just on.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'll try to save you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's so scary.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the option.

[SPEAKER_03]: The name Ulfisch comes from the German term, Wolf Münchisch, which translates to the Wolf people.

[SPEAKER_03]: The name reflects both their fierce appearance and their predatory nature.

[SPEAKER_03]: or specific name or tell us, indicates a primary geological range of the northern Pacific, especially during the bearing scene.

[SPEAKER_03]: They were often closely associated with rocky habitat.

[SPEAKER_03]: So if you find rocks on the bottom, you're going to find these guys.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: The bearing will fish, races, lengths up to five, and maybe even six feet, and they can lay 50 pounds.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Their bodies are elongated in very robust, covered in a grayish, or all-of-green skin.

[SPEAKER_03]: Some, though, I've seen pictures of some individuals being even a red color, and they can be done with light specs all around them.

[SPEAKER_03]: One of their most distinctive features is their long, sharp teeth adapted for gripping slippery, prey, and crushing them.

[SPEAKER_03]: Gosh, okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Furthermore, they possess a unique adaptation.

[SPEAKER_03]: This gelatinous substance within their body that allows them to survive this icy water.

[SPEAKER_03]: So they don't freeze.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it's like the antifreeze kind of.

[SPEAKER_03]: There are several identifiable traits that set the bearing wool fish apart from the other fish.

[SPEAKER_03]: Coloration, like we said, they have a modeled pattern, helps them blend into a rocky environment.

[SPEAKER_03]: They're fangs, being long, canine, like teeth, to give them an extremely fearsome appearance.

[SPEAKER_03]: They're dorsal fin, which is extremely long, fin, that extends along their back, eating with their stability in the water.

[SPEAKER_03]: And their body shaping is long, and cylindrical, providing efficient movement [SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, neat.

[SPEAKER_03]: Any questions so far?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, they sound cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to look it up a picture of them.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: And there's all kinds of wolf fish.

[SPEAKER_03]: LeBang wolf fish is a critical role in the environment as considered an apex predator in its habitat.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: their primary feed on crustaceans, crabs and lobsters are mung their top, among, you know, they do eat mollusk and other small fish.

[SPEAKER_03]: By controlling the population of these species, bearing low fish, contribute to the balance of these marine ecosystems and promote biodiversity.

[SPEAKER_03]: these predatory behavior ensures that weaker and overpopulated species do not dominate these ecosystems, supporting the vitality of the entire environment.

[SPEAKER_03]: So this is what we talked about on the show and other shows a lot that you need apex predators clean out the system, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: give wolf fish a bad name because that's what they're eating the same thing they're catching Let's say yeah, but without them and then they get caught in their traps and stuff like that and these guys could take a harm I think you're hand off for sure.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, people that eat them like they'll throw the pop cans in them and they just explode and stuff like that It's these guys.

[SPEAKER_03]: What do you mean though when they're harvesting them?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, they're cut their heads off and their draw muscles are still like active Oh, I'll keep it a pop can in there and they just explode.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they they're while they're yeah [SPEAKER_01]: their but jaws are still moving a lot of people don't like them because they're very hard they're very strong and if you get bit it's gonna suck yeah i mean they're pretty big gnarly fish i just looked up the picture of them there wow you should look them up at home if you if you haven't yet already [SPEAKER_03]: So the natural habitat is the primarily the cold nutrient-rich waters of the Bearing Sea.

[SPEAKER_03]: They stretch from Ultiline Island to the eastern coast of Russia.

[SPEAKER_03]: They generally found that depths between 200 and 600 meters, which is 650 feet to 19 that are [SPEAKER_03]: They favor rocky bottoms, and they can camouflage a hunt prey, and they live in holes in the rocks.

[SPEAKER_03]: So, some social behaviors, they are generally considered solitary, often staying hidden among the rocks, and crevices to ambush their prey.

[SPEAKER_03]: However, during very specific times of year, they may be found in small groups, meaning mostly in the breeding season.

[SPEAKER_03]: These social gatherings can be quite a sight to behold, as various members display their territory of behaviors and engage in mating rituals.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're mating horses.

[SPEAKER_03]: They're mating horses.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Mating season for the bearing will fish, typically occurs in the late winter and early early spring.

[SPEAKER_03]: Meals perform courtship displays to attract female, characterized by erratic swimming patterns in body posturing.

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, they'll go up down sideways, they'll go crazy.

[SPEAKER_03]: They look like they're having a stroke, but it's the show that they have so much energy to expend.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: They're so good for themselves.

[SPEAKER_03]: They can waste it.

[SPEAKER_03]: After successful courtship, female slave fertilize eggs in the rocky substrate, and then we guarded by the male until they hatched, so the males will stay in the hole in guard the nest.

[SPEAKER_03]: They will not leave most of the time, they will not eat most of the time, and so it's so important to pick a good male from the female.

[SPEAKER_03]: She's done her part by making the eggs which is highly calorie intensive, and he has to protect them.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so he's protecting them which is also highly calorie intensive.

[SPEAKER_03]: Or the male will guard until they hatch.

[SPEAKER_03]: This parental investment in our, in our, in our, in, sorry, enriches the survival chance of the young, which is vital for harsh marine environments, because where they live is so hard for species to survive.

[SPEAKER_03]: They don't lay a ton of eggs.

[SPEAKER_03]: They're apex predators, so they're low, they're low for kind of low density.

[SPEAKER_03]: that they need to ensure that they, you know, put the time at effort to making sure that their babies have the best chance of life.

[SPEAKER_03]: So by the time they're leaving, the NASA's they've already, there's no, they haven't worked, their eggs weren't eaten by the NASA predators and they have a good chance.

[SPEAKER_03]: Natural predators, despite their fierce appearance, the wolf fish are not what health their threats.

[SPEAKER_03]: NASA predators include extremely large fish species, seals, and some large sea birds.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's always a bigger fish.

[SPEAKER_03]: All of which may hunt the wolf fish have given the opportunity.

[SPEAKER_03]: The harsh conditions of the national habitat, though, also post significant challenges that are survival.

[SPEAKER_03]: Storms can wipe out whole colonies of these guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Conceration status currently, no conservation, or the conservation status of the Bering Wolf is listed as least concerned by the IUCN.

[SPEAKER_03]: This is not the true for all wolf fish species or wolf fields, but for the Bering one they're listed as least concerned.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'll have our overfishing environmental changes due to climate impacts and overfishing due post-series threats these guys.

[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, stability, or sorry, sustainability, fishing practices, and ongoing research is vital to monitoring the population health, doing sure these are Michael Fish, continue to thrive in their natural habitat.

[SPEAKER_03]: When predators disappear, when Apex predators disappear, the whole environment gets out of whack.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_03]: If anybody's ever wonder why your pond has a bunch of stunning, like Bass and Blugio, it's because neither of those fish are supposed to be Apex predators.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they're not the top dog.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, largely not fast.

[SPEAKER_03]: I don't care what anybody says.

[SPEAKER_03]: They're never supposed to be of an apex predator.

[SPEAKER_03]: So when you remove that, that's why you've stunned.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's why they, that's why they don't do well.

[SPEAKER_01]: You throw one musky in there.

[SPEAKER_03]: One musky, both in pike.

[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, even a big flathead catfish is an apex predator cleans out the system.

[SPEAKER_03]: A human impact, the bearing wolffish has found its way into commercial fisheries, where it is harvest for its second-lit meat.

[SPEAKER_03]: Although there are fishing regulations to help ensure this availability of the population, there has been discussions about the potential risk posed by climate change, environmental factors, and alterations to their habitat and food sources.

[SPEAKER_03]: Because people are also going to their food sources and they're using deep water trollers, which are destroying the bottom habitat.

[SPEAKER_03]: For the more, there's a lot of pollution is ending up in these habitats through activities like oil drilling, which is upsetting this delicate ecosystem.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's not good.

[SPEAKER_03]: Let's see.

[SPEAKER_03]: Some interesting facts.

[SPEAKER_03]: They can thrive in temperatures well below freezing.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks to their unique anti-freezing proteins, anti-freeze proteins.

[SPEAKER_03]: They are recloser related to the wolf field, but belong to a different family.

[SPEAKER_03]: uh, bearing wolf fish are known for their ex, you know, ex, you know, ex, you know, ex, ex, ex, ex, birth resilience, cable was standing a harshest conditions in their environments when other fish and animals fall through these guys are, they will prevail.

[SPEAKER_03]: Good.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Any questions about these guys?

[SPEAKER_01]: They're pretty, they're pretty unique.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't want to see one in the water, that's for sure.

[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, they would, they would give you a pretty hard bite if you mess with them.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but first off, you're not going to run into them unless you're messing with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, of course.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to feet down.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: They just look scary.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't want to see one like come across it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would not be a good time.

[SPEAKER_03]: So, the whole family group of wolf fish and wolf fields are very intelligent in some wolf eels in the Atlantic actually breed or mate for life.

[SPEAKER_03]: So there's a big problem, talked about with fisheries with that.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because it's like you take one, then the pair's over.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't find another mate.

[SPEAKER_03]: They're just just stop.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's like swans or any, you know, or geese.

[SPEAKER_01]: Cainting geese, aren't they like that?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, there were a little less than some of the other bigger waterfowl.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know when they get upset though.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, they get upset.

[SPEAKER_03]: But I'm not saying they probably will find another mate.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, God.

[SPEAKER_03]: Swans will just die.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they'll just die a harder real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's awful.

[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, so they will like leave each other sometimes when it comes to the wolf yields in the Atlantic.

[SPEAKER_03]: If one or the other is not a successful partner.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but if they're a good set the first couple years, they'll, you know, 40, 50 years, they'll keep doing it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's neat.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now they're pretty gnarly fish.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would not want to get bit by one of these guys.

[SPEAKER_03]: This is one of where they taste like so you can buy You can actually buy them a lot of stores.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, they have a different name.

[SPEAKER_03]: I should have looked it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I hear way I just was looking it up because I have like the scientific name.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, no, it's not the same.

[SPEAKER_03]: So like you ever seen a monk fish.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's one of the it's got these guys a lot giant wide mouth.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah They're not called monk fish.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's the food name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: uh...

like tooth fish now is like uh...

sea bass like uh...

chelaine sea bath is actually tooth fish okay because people didn't like the name okay so this got these guys have another like a commercial name versus their actual name oh got you okay i can't remember what it is without my head they're uh...

they're uh...

what is it the scientific name is uh...

i'm gonna try it and our hikus in our hikus story in talis yeah [SPEAKER_01]: Orientalists.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's why I said earlier.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they're uh, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're pretty cool looking fish and they're freaky fauna Fact is that you know, they have that anti-freeze in them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's five to six foot long big Narlite gnashing teeth gnashing teeth.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would call them gnashing.

[SPEAKER_03]: They have a giant fleshy lip That's another trait.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, so uh some of their cousins and stuff eat like sea urchins and spiny [SPEAKER_03]: So they basically have these giant flesh calisers to kind of help with that.

[SPEAKER_03]: Crudge them up.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: So they're getting, like, taking the sting into areas of their body where they can't really feel it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: What makes sense?

[SPEAKER_01]: Good app adaptation.

[SPEAKER_03]: All right.

[SPEAKER_03]: Why have been the great and peaceful mystery?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I've been Jay.

[SPEAKER_03]: And we'll catch you next week, guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Feliziting to freak you found in the Friday.

[SPEAKER_00]: I help the podcast grow.

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