January 14, 2019 — The Atlantic wolffish is not an attractive beast.
Its appearance is characterized by its large, fang-like teeth (where it earns its name), which are used to crush prey like crabs, lobsters and sea urchins. Its throat is also peppered with more serrated teeth.
It may come as a surprise then to hear that their numbers have dwindled relentlessly over the last century partly as a result of overfishing.
- In the US, catches of Atlantic wolffish declined from over 1,200 tons per year to around 30 tons per year between the 1980s and the 2000s.
- In the UK, wolffish have declined in English and Welsh trawl fisheries by 96% since 1889.
- In the Baltics, the fish’s population has been classed as endangered, meaning it has a high risk of extinction in the wild.
But we don’t eat them. So why are they being overfished to the point of extinction?