http://www.uwlax.edu/biology/faculty/tyser/QME/Pages/exercise%2011%20download/hagfish.jpgHagfish face (closeup)
http://vivaldi.zool.gu.se/Fiskfysiologi_2001/Course_material/Introduction_fish_evolution/Images/Hagfish-I.jpgHagfish

http://oceanlink.island.net/oinfo/hagfish/slimeygross.jpg Hagfish slime

Hagfish At Home

Hello, out there. We are three students from Surrey, BC who are attending a Youth Forum at Bamfield, BC. During our stay here, we discovered a fascinating substance: HAGFISH SLIME.

The hagfish is a primitive fish that lives in deep water close to the ocean floor near land. Their appearance is similar to that of a lamprey, they are long, slim, and a pinky grey colour. When sufficiently scared, they secrete small packets of sugar and protein into the seawater. The sugar has an affinity for water and turns the entire mix into a mass of gooey slime. Protein strands form in the slime, and give the slime mass its strength and elasticity.

Being the curious and ... interesting... students that we are, we began to ponder the potential uses of this incredible substance. One of the uses that we came up with was using the slime as an egg substitute in baking, as the composition of the slime is mainly protein and water.

To test this theory, we decided to try a cooking experiment comparing scones made with ordinary chicken eggs to scones made with hagfish slime.

To start, we prepared a basic scone mix and created two seperate portions with everything included except the eggs and slime. Then, we mixed the hagfish slime (about one egg's worth) into one of the portions of the scone mix, using our hands, and we did the same with the egg and the other portion of scone mix. The egg and the slime did not have enough moisture on their own, so we added some water to each of the mixtures. We rolled both portions into balls measuring about 3.5 cm in diameter, slightly less than the size of the palms of our hands. We placed them on an ungreased pan and put them in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) for about ten minutes, then we checked on them. They weren't done, so we left them in for another 2.5 minutes, at which point they were finished. Of the two people immediately asked which scone was made with which, they each correctly guessed which ones were made with slime. We theorized that this could be attributed to the fact that the hagfish scones were kneaded more and had more water in them. We also offered a scone to Mike, a Marine Station employee, and he decided that "it was great" and that "it was not icky [sic] at all." He also mentioned that he "could feel the slime pumping through his veins" and that he felt "rejuvenated". Personally, none of us could taste a negative difference, and in fact we agreed that the ones made with hagfish slime tasted better!!

Other suggested uses for the slime of the hagfish are; as a substitute for eggs in other situations, as the colligative agent in raw hamburgers (perhaps Spam?), as an emulsifier or a thickening agent in other cooking, or perhaps in eggnog. There might also be a future for hagfish slime as a flycatcher due to its sticky properties, or as a prop in theatre and film industries requiring slime (ex. Ghostbusters, There's Something About Mary, Alien series).

In conclusion, we have found that hagfish slime has great possibilities: it is an untapped and marvellous resource. Its many potential uses could help the hagfish rise above its slimy reputation (pardon the pun) and move onwards to greatness!!!

Thank you.

-- David Yuen, Lindi Smith, Daniel Tiedemann (stik_twig@hotmail.com)

http://oceanlink.island.net/oinfo/hagfish/hagfishathome.html

Ever tried this yourself raina?

It's surprisingly good. I'm interested in making some kind of natural 'jello' with it.

Is there an egg shortage in British Columbia? Why does anyone need an "egg substitute?"

Is there an egg shortage in British Columbia?
No.
Why does anyone need an "egg substitute?"
They're used by people who want lower cholesterol, who don't want the hassle of keeping eggs fresh, or who are allergic to eggs, to name a few reasons that pop into mind. Then again, some people just like eating slime.

I'll stick with real eggs, enriched with omega-3.

All you have to do to make eggs virtually cholesterol-free is remove the yolk. Also, you can bet that any substance secreted from a fish will have to be refrigerated. Finally, keeping the hagfish alive, getting the hagfish "sufficiently scared," then gathering and processing the slime appears no more economic than raising chickens, and probably a lot less so.

People who are allergic to eggs should be exiled to the same island as people who are allergic to peanuts. They can raise their hagfish there.

People who are allergic to eggs should be exiled to the same island as people who are allergic to peanuts. They can raise their hagfish there.


hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

That's a quote for my signature.

Finally, keeping the hagfish alive, getting the hagfish "sufficiently scared," then gathering and processing the slime appears no more economic than raising chickens, and probably a lot less so.
Er, no. A hagfish can survive for up to seven months without eating anything. What chicken is even remotely that low maintenance?

Hagfish have a very low mortality rate even in the wild. Each female produces only a few large eggs, yet their population groups are massive and densely-packed (up to 15,000 in a small area). So successful is their species that it's thrived for hundreds of millions of years with essentially no evolutionary change.

As for the slime, you don't have to coax it out of a hagfish. They readily produce large quantities at the slightest provocation, or often for no apparent reason. Just put one in a bucket of water, and you'll soon have a bucket of slime.

What were your costs on the project? I'd bet they can't beat a well-run chicken farm. You also have a bit of a marketing problem for the product.

In a world where millions of people eat snails, anything is possible. People consume lots of gross things. Ever thought about what lobsters and crayfish eat, before they are in turn eaten by humans? What about all the nasty stuff in bologna? People eat maggots for heaven's sake.

People already pay money for slime for use as a toy and novelty. The hagfish stuff is more interesting than the artificial goo that kids buy from 25 cent machines.

Anyway, the egg substitute is just one of many possible uses of hagfish slime. I'm most interested in other applications made possible by its exotic material properties.

Researchers from the Cambridge Polymer Group in Boston and the University of British Columbia are now taking a close look at Hagfish slime, in an attempt to understand how the slime protects the fish in nature and to help determine if the slime could lead to practical materials for industry or medicine.

Hagfish slime is a concoction of mucus and threadlike fibers, and is produced in concentrated form from a series of pores that line the sides of the fish's body. Upon contact with seawater, the concentrated slime expands rapidly into a sticky gel that can ensnare and sometimes suffocate an attacker.

Unlike the mucous produced by the membranes of humans and other animals, which become more rigid, viscous gels at and below ambient body temperatures, the researchers found that Hagfish slime is much less elastic, even at high concentrations, than its human counterpart.

In addition, over the ranges of temperatures encountered by the hagfish, the gel strength is relatively temperature independent. The insensitivity to temperature perhaps ensures that slime is an effective defense in a variety of conditions. In addition, artificial materials that mimic Hagfish slime chemistry might make good space-filling gels.

One potential application for such gels, explain the researchers, is as a way to curtail bleeding in an accident victim or during surgery. In addition, studying the slime may help us understand how mucins, the components of mucous, function in our own bodies and elsewhere.

http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2003/split/660-3.html

One potential application for such gels, explain the researchers, is as a way to curtail bleeding in an accident victim or during surgery. In addition, studying the slime may help us understand how mucins, the components of mucous, function in our own bodies and elsewhere.

Interesting-- this sounds not unlike a natural form of those "liquid band-aids".


It is safe to assume that the market for hagfish products will expand, and hagfish aquaculture will become big business. Now is the ideal time to cash in on the phenomenon before the crowd rushes in on the hagfish-farming scene.