December’s Creature Feature was the Eel Pout or Ocean Pout.  They can reach 3½ feet long and weigh up to 12lbs, and get their names from a huge mouth with drooping lips, eel-like appearance, and slimy skin.  Pouts are visually differentiated from true eels because the anal fin is continuous with the caudal fin.  Coloring can vary from pinkish-yellow, brownish, reddish-brown, or mottled with darker hues, and white or yellow bellies.  Eel pouts use strong, blunt conical teeth to eat invertebrates and slink around sandy, muddy, or rocky bottoms and hard structures as deep as 360 feet.  Considered a cold-water fish, NJ is near its southern range, which extends from Delaware Bay north to Newfoundland.  Eel pouts actually have natural antifreeze in their blood to help them handle northern sub-zero temperatures!  While the ling cod looks like the pout, there were no correct entries this month.

February’s creature is among the most primitive of the multi-cellular animals.  Many people would be surprised to hear it is an animal at all.  This creature does not “live in a pineapple under the sea” but instead grows below the low-tide line on hard substrates like rocks and pilings.  To enter for a chance to win a COA T-shirt, send your guess by mail, fax, or e-mail (PO Box 505, Sandy Hook, NJ 07732; fax 732-872-8041; e-mail SandyHook@CleanOceanAction.org).