Description: The kitefin shark is a moderately-sized deepwater shark, with a short and blunt snout, two almost equal spineless dorsal fins, thick lips, huge serrated teeth e heavy jaws. It is usually greyish, dark brown or black; sometimes violet with black spots.
Global Distribution: Western Atlantic: Georges Bank and northern Gulf of Mexico. Eastern Atlantic: Iceland, Scotland, and Irish Atlantic slope to Morocco, western Mediterranean, Madeira to Cameroon. Western Indian Ocean: Mozambique and South Africa. Western and Central Pacific. View Map
Reproduction: Ovoviviparous, with 10-20 young born at 30-42 cm.
Maturity: range 117 - ? cm.
Behavioural ecology: Found singly or in small schools.
Population structure & migrations:
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: FishBase: 37 - 1800 m, usually 200 - 1800 m.
Canary Islands (Brito et al. 2002): more common between 400 - 600 m.
Habitat: Bathydemersal; sometimes pelagic. Found on outer continental and insular shelves and slopes. Mainly found on or near the bottom but readily occurs well off the substrate.
Feeding habits: Feeds mainly on deepwater bony fish, but also skates, other sharks, cephalopods and crustaceans.
Trophic level: FishBase: 4.2
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Minor commercial species. By-catch of the longline black scabbardfish fishery in Madeira.
Conservation status: Global: Near threatened.
Northeast Atlantic: Vulnerable.
Europe: Endangered.
Nutritional information & food safety:
REFERENCES
Brito A., Pascual P.J., Falcón J.M., Sancho A., González G. (2002). Peces de las islas Canarias. Catálogo comentado e ilustrado. Francisco Lemos Editor, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, 418 pp.
Direcção Regional de Pescas, 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.
