Description: A deepwater shark with a long and thick snout and huge iridescent green eyes. Lower teeth much larger than upper teeth. Low rhomboid lateral trunk denticles. Two dorsal fins with large spines. Dark grey or brown above; lighter below. Adults with tips of dorsal fins dusky, not prominently marked.
Global Distribution: Eastern Atlantic from France to South Africa, including the Mediterranean. Western Central Atlantic: northern Gulf of Mexico. Indo-West Pacific. View Map
BIOLOGICAL FEATURES
Size: Maximum length: male 170 cm (total length); female 145.5 cm (TL).
Reproduction: Ovoviviparous. Number of litter recorded, one in Mediterranean females, and possibly 1 or 2 for the species.
Maturity: range 105 - 118 cm (males).
Behavioural ecology: Solitary.
Population structure & migrations:
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: FishBase: 50 - 1440 m, usually 200 - 600 m.
Habitat: Bathydemersal. A common deepwater dogfish of the outer continental shelves and upper slopes, commonest below 200 m; usually benthic and epibenthic at depths from 50-1440 m with most records from 200-600 m.
Feeding habits: Adults feed mainly on bony fishes such as hake, epigonids, lanternfish, herring, smelts, cods, rattails, squid and crustaceans.
Trophic level: FishBase: 4.1
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Minor commercial species. By-catch of the longline black scabbardfish fishery in Madeira.
Ebert D.A., Stehmann M.F.W. (2013). Sharks, batoids, and chimaeras of the North Atlantic. FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes, No. 7. FAO, Rome, 523 pp.
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.
Pereira J.N., Simas A., Rosa A., Aranha A., Lino S., Constantino E., Monteiro V., Tariche O., Menezes G. (2012). Weight–length relationships for 27 demersal fish species caught off the Cape Verde archipelago (eastern North Atlantic). Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 28(1): 156-159.
