Fish of Arctic Ocean

A set of fish I made for Sieppo, the children's magazine of Finnish Nature League. The editors had seen photographs posted on Instagram by a Russian fisherman, who became a small Internet sensation for sharing photos of the fishy oddballs his vessel hauls up (this guy: twitter.com/rfedortsov?ref_src…). They wanted to show these fish in the magazine, but it would probably not be a good idea to show kids the dead, mutilated animals in the original photos. So, they commissioned illustrations.

The species are roughhead grenadier (Macrourus berglax), lumpsucker (Cyclopterus lumpus), Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus) and Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus). The latter is apparently the most long-living known vertebrate: a female that got caught in a fishing net and died was dated to be around 400 years old (source: www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/0…).

Oh, and about the lumpsucker. As it's name suggests, the pelvic fins of the lumpsucker have evolved into a kind of adhesive disc. Back in the University, I was taught that the best way of differentiating these fish from anything else was to grab them firmly by the tail and swing them into a plastic tray, belly down. If the tray can then be lifted up with the fish, you're holding either a lumpsucker or a Common seasnail. And yes, the fish were already dead.