#eulachon

I give you a very silly fish!

Thaleichthys pacificus, aka, eulachon or hooligan

They’re also known as candlefish, and they’re used for food, trade, or left to rot in a hole to harvest the oil by Alaskan natives!

I would like to introduce you to Thaleichthyes pacificus, also known as the eulachon (you-luh-con, in the lower 48; hooligan in Alaska; oolighan in Chinook Jargon)Also known as the candlefish.

These are tiny smelt - but they are also extremely fatty fish.

With up to 15% of their body weigh being fat tissue, if you dry one out and string it on a wick, YOU CAN LITERALLY BURN IT LIKE A CANDLE.

They’re anadromous, like salmon, so they live in the ocean during most of their lives but spawn in freshwater rivers - though they’re rather less predictable.

Indigenous communities on North America’s Pacific coast included eulachon as part of their diet, and often processed them for oil - which is done by letting them rot in a hole in the ground for about a week before adding boiling water and skimming the oil off the top.

Eulachon oil was so widely traded between coastal tribes and inland tribes that the trade routes were called grease trails.

In fact, one archaeologist argued in a paper that the name of the state of Oregon was derived from the Chinook Jargon word - oolighan.

A few distinct population segments of eulachon are threatened or endangered, so at this point I would not in good conscience recommend setting any on fire.

Also written as “ooligan” or “hooligan”, for some weird reason, Eulachons are saltwater fish that prefer colder waters. They live in a range stretching from Alaska to the northern part of California. 

Locations: In the northern coast.