Island lobsterman Jason Barter holds a nearly 4-foot-long wrymouth eel we found in one of his traps while hauling in deep water in the spring of 2005.

When the trap holding the creature came up to the washboard, neither of us could readily identify it. I, being either very brave or very stupid (more likely the latter), reached into the trap and took the eel out, whereupon it quickly wrapped itself four times around my arm. It was only then that I noticed the row of sharply pointed spikes running the length of it's dorsal fin. While the spikes did me no harm, their presence caused me to momentarily question the wisdom of my actions in removing it so blithely from the trap.

It took a bit of research before Jason and I finally identified this eel as a wrymouth. I took quite a few photos of it and this one was the best of the best of the bunch; I thank Jason for allowing me to publish it here.