Eptatretus cirrhatus has an eel-like body with no dorsal fin, a paddle-like tail and are often a grey-brown with a pink or bluish tinge of colour.

[6] It has seven pairs of gill pouches[7] and forming a line down both the lower sides of its body are pores which often many of them are ringed with a white colour and are used for secreting a snot-like slime which expands out once it has contact with the sea water.

[9] E. cirrhatus has a range that includes the western Pacific[10] and stretches down the east coast of Australia from Queensland to Tasmania as well as throughout New Zealand from the North Cape to Snares Shelf and around the Chatham Islands.

[12] "All known Hagfish species live in close proximity to the bottom, either resting on the substrate or occupying burrows.

Not much is yet understood about the gestation period of Eptatretus cirrhatus but they did find a low reproductive rate occurring and therefore issues may arise from commercial fisheries,[13] although they are currently at a 'least concern'.

Hagfish play an important role in the ecosystem, recycling nutrients contained in carcasses that sink to the sea floor.

[16] As the hagfish are practically blind except for their sensitivity to light they rely on the 6 sensory barbels that surround their mouths to find their way along the ocean floor and their singular nasal passageway to smell out their prey.

[17] Hagfish have a unique dental plate inside of their mouths with a row of posterior and anterior keratinous grasping teeth on each side.

This dental plate folds bilaterally helping with the grasping motion hagfish use to eat their prey.

The dental plate protrudes out and folds onto the flesh of the prey and then retracts back into the hagfish's mouth.

[20] The diet is a variety of invertebrates and includes hermit crabs, shrimps, sharks and bony fish.

During the height of the whaling industry in New Zealand in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, hagfish populations exploded.

[13] This industry has no regulations unlike many others because of a large number of unknown factors about hagfish life cycles.

But due to the depth at which this species inhabits and the difficulty in observing their behaviour limited knowledge has been gained.

"Hagfish slime is made up of two parts: mucus and tiny fibres, about 15cm long but only a micron wide.