Mo Ganji: Eightgill Hagfish | Achtkiemen-Schleimaal | Eptatretus octatrema | No. 073/250 from work group 8/99

Mo Ganji’s single line traces the Eightgill hagfish — a primitive, eel-like marine fish with a soft, jawless body adapted to deep and cold waters — as a gesture of radical reduction. The continuous line offers only the slightest indication of form, allowing a presence to surface that may be read as hagfish, yet remains open enough to slip beyond that designation. In this restraint, essence appears where classification loosens its grip.

Eptatretus octatrema is listed as Near Threatened (NT) on the IUCN Red List. The species inhabits deep waters of the Southern Ocean, particularly around New Zealand and southern South America. Although it occupies a relatively broad range, population data are sparse, and its life history — including slow growth and low reproductive rates — makes it sensitive to increasing human pressures.

The primary threats include bycatch in deep-sea fisheries, expanding bottom trawling activities, and the growing exploitation of deep-water ecosystems. Because hagfishes play a key role as scavengers in benthic food webs, their decline could have cascading effects on deep-sea ecological balance. Limited biological data further complicate effective management and conservation.

Ganji’s single line opens a space where this ancient being can be encountered without hierarchy or narrative. It invites attention to a form of life that predates many familiar categories, quietly reminding us that human ideas of progress and dominance sit atop far older continuities — and that our tendency to see ourselves as separate from nature obscures how deeply we remain embedded within its most fundamental processes.