The inshore hagfish is a hagfish

Hagfish

Hagfish, the clade Myxini , are eel-shaped slime-producing marine animals . They are the only living animals that have a skull but not a vertebral column. Along with lampreys, hagfish are jawless and are living fossils whose next nearest relatives include all vertebrates...

 of the genus Eptatretus

Eptatretus

Eptatretus is a large genus of hagfish. It has at around 48 described species at present.-Species:* Eptatretus alastairi Mincarone & Fernholm, 2010* Eptatretus ancon...

.

The inshore hagfish is found in the Northwest Pacific, from the Sea of Japan

Sea of Japan

The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, between the Asian mainland, the Japanese archipelago and Sakhalin. It is bordered by Japan, North Korea, Russia and South Korea. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific...

 and across eastern Japan to Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

. It has six pairs of gill pouches and gill apertures.

These hags are found in the sublittoral zone. They live usually buried in the bottom mud and migrate into deeper water to spawn.
The inshore hagfish is the only member of the Myxinidae family having a seasonal reproductive cycle.
Usually hagfish are not eaten, but this particular species is valued as food in the Korean Peninsula

Korean Peninsula

The Korean Peninsula is a peninsula in East Asia. It extends southwards for about 684 miles from continental Asia into the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by the Sea of Japan to the south, and the Yellow Sea to the west, the Korea Strait connecting the first two bodies of water.Until the end of...

 and among the Koreans in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It is known as Pú Shì Nián Máng Mán (布氏粘盲鰻, 無目鰻, 蒲氏粘盲鰻, 青眠鰻, 龍筋, 鰻背) in Mandarin, kkomjangeo (꼼장어) or meokjangeo (먹장어) in Korean

Korean language

Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...

, and Nuta-unagi in Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

,

The hide of this hagfish is processed into "eel skin" in Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

and exported worldwide.

External links

• P. Ekanayake, Y. D. Lee & J. Lee Antioxidant Activity of Flesh and Skin of Eptatretus Burgeri (Hag Fish)
• Kawakoshi, A., Hyodo, S., Yasuda, A., & Takei, Y. (2003). A single and novel natriuretic peptide is expressed in the heart and brain of the most primitive vertebrate, the hagfish (Eptatretus burgeri). Journal of Molecular Endocrinology, 31 (1), 209"220.