Northern wolffish
(Anarhichas denticulatus)

The northern wolffish (Anarhichas denticulatus), also known as the blue sea cat or jelly cat, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Anarhichadidae, the wolf fishes. This species is found in the North Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean.

The northern wolffish is a robust, elongate fish with a large head, sharp snout and small eyes. The teeth are distinctive and prominent with large canine-like teeth to the front of the jaws and molar-like teeth at the back of the jaws.

It does not have any pelvic fins.

The overall colour of the body is greyish to dark brown with a pale purplish sheen and there are frequently marked with many but vague dark bars or spotting.

The tissue of the muscles is soft and resembles jelly.

The vomerine teeth are large, and may be rounded or pointed and extend back to the line of palatine teeth.

The caudal fin is truncate and contains between 18 and 22 fin rays.

The maximum published total length is 180 cm (71 in) and the maximum published weight is 20 kg (44 lb).

The Northern wolffish is found in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans where it is distributed in the Barents and Norwegian seas to Spitsbergen, Iceland, Faroe Islands, southern Greenland and south along east coast of North America almost to Cape Cod and west to Prince Patrick Island in the Northwest Territories of Canada. They have been reported from the northern North Sea and the Bay of Biscay.

This species inhabits the open areas of the North Atlantic and the offshore region of the continental shelf occurring in bathypelagic waters and has been recorded at a depth of 1,325 m (4,347 ft), the deepest any wolffish has been recorded at, living mainly in the free of the substrate in the water column and occasionally moving up to the surface.