Fig. 10. Representative curves of stress–relaxation of whole hagfish slime in the same apparatus as described in Fig. 7. The slime was strained by a 50 mm movement of the plunger within the slime and held for 500 s. Stress relaxation in seawater (SW) and distilled water (dH₂O) was more rapid at first and then settled into a slower rate of force decay. In seawater containing 5 mmol l^–1 DTT, this initial rapid force decline was absent.