Description: A stout, spindle-shaped shark with large black eyes, a sharp, conical snout, long gill slits, and small, smooth-edged, narrow teeth with side cusps. Strong keels on the caudal peduncle, short secondary keels on the caudal base, and a crescentic caudal fin. Dark grey dorsally, white ventrally, without blotches; rear tip of first dorsal fin abruptly white.
Global Distribution: Circumglobal, amphitemperate. Absent from equatorial seas. View Map
BIOLOGICAL FEATURES
Size: Maximum length 350 cm (total length); common length 244 cm (TL); maximum published weight 230.0 kg. Females grow larger than males.
Behavioural ecology: Found singly and in schools and feeding aggregations. Segregates by sex and size.
Population structure & migrations: Highly migratory. Trans-Atlantic migrations have been recorded.
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: FishBase: 0 - 715 m.
Habitat: Pelagic-oceanic. Most abundant on continental offshore fishing banks but also found far from land in ocean basins and occasionally close inshore. Pelagic, epipelagic or littoral shark.
Feeding habits: Feeds on small and medium-sized pelagic schooling species, other sharks, squid and demersal fishes.
Trophic level: FishBase: 4.5
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Formerly a commercial species. There is now legislation against fishing it.
Gibson C., Valenti S.V., Fordham S.V., Fowler S.L. (2008). The Conservation of Northeast Atlantic Chondrichthyans: Repost of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group Northeast Atlantic Red List Workshop. IUCN Species Survival Commission Shark Specialist Groups, NatureBureau, Newbury, UK, 76 pp.
IUCN (2014). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. www.iucnredlist.org
Nieto A., Ralph G.M., Comeros-Raynal M.T., Kemp J., GarcÃa Criado M., Allen D.J., Dulvy N.K., Walls R.H.L., Russell B., Pollard D., GarcÃa S., Craig M., Collette B.B., Pollom R., Biscoito M., Labbish Chao N., Abella A., Afonso P., Ãlvarez H., Carpenter K.E., Clò S., Cook R., Costa M.J., Delgado J., Dureuil M., Ellis J.R., Farrell E.D., Fernandes P., Florin A-B., Fordham S., Fowle, S., Gil de Sola L., Gil Herrera J., Goodpaster A., Harvey M., Heessen H., Herler J., Jung A., Karmovskaya E., Keskin C., Knudsen S.W., Kobyliansky S., KovaÄić M., Lawson J.M., Lorance P., McCully Phillips S., Munroe T., Nedreaas K., Nielsen J., Papaconstantinou C., Polidoro B., Pollock C.M., Rijnsdorp A.D., Sayer C., Scott J., Serena F., Smith-Vaniz W.F., Soldo A., Stump E., Williams J.T. (2015). Europen Red List of Marine Fishes. IUCN and European Union, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 90 pp.
