Toilets and Hagfish

You know what? I'm really glad to be done with college soon. It's not the pressure, it's not being homesick, or even the amazing food. It's that people around here STILL wont flush the toilets. I can't even to relate to these...NON-flushers. Are they really busy people, or are they really scared of their own poop? You think when you see something like that you'd want to get rid of it as SOON as possible, at least out of courtesy for other bathroom users. All it takes is one little flick of a handle..it's like not even a SECOND out of your day...c'mon dorm people.

I'm sure it's like this at every college, and probably bathrooms everywhere too, but that just weirds me out even more.

ANYWAYS. I'm taking this fish class. Ichthyology, right?  It's pretty rad, we get to catch fish every monday with this big boat that zaps 'em so you can just scoop them out from the water and touch them and stuff. But what I want to talk about is this animal we took notes on in class the other day:

Hagfish, Myxiniformes Epetretus

Gross, I know. These aren't really fish but sort of like the earthworms of the sea, except unlike earthworms they're like a foot long and bigger. The thing about them that amazes me is that they're not some rare undersea creature, but probably the most plentiful. There are more of these guys than ALL the other fish combined. 

And they, like I said before, are SO gross. Let me tell you how (this is all direct from my notes): 

-There are anywhere from 60,000 -500,000 hagfish in every square kilometer of water on earth.

-They don't have jaws, but instead feed on dead fish and whales by grinding their mouth parts together.

-To feed on an animal they will enter the carcas by the mouth or anus (ewwww) and eat from the inside out

-They have no eyes, only a spot on their head that can detect light

-When attacked or threatend in any way, their body secretes a vast amount of mucus, in hopes to confuse or distract the predator

Bleeeaarg. The ocean can be really gross sometimes. I'm just glad they're scavengers, or else I would never even look at a beach ever again. 

Next time I might talk about lampreys. They're pretty disturbing in their own right, but that's all the oceangrossology I can handle for now.