Angular roughshark

2/22/2018

The Oxynotidae family brings you the angular roughshark (Oxynotus centrina), a deepwater bottom-dweller found in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. Usually measuring less than 100 cm in length (but can rarely reach 150 cm), the angular roughshark can be observed anywhere from 60 metres in depth all the way down to 660 metres! They tend to stay shallower than 100 metres, however.

Angular roughsharks are large and have spined dorsal fins – a combination that often leads to them being bycatch for the fisheries throughout much of their range. Within this range, they prefer muddy bottoms where they can feast on polychaete worms, crustaceans, and molluscs. What a refined diet!

They are viviparous with yolk-sac, producing litters of 10 to 12 pups once a year. The IUCN has assessed this animal as globally Vulnerable (VU) due to the Angular roughshark is often bycatch by offshore bottom and pelagic trawlers in the Mediterranean Sea and the Northeast Atlantic. They may be Critically Endangered in the Mediterranean.

did you know about this shark before?

glossary

Bycatch: The part of a fishery’s catch that is made up of non-target species.
Crustaceans: Group of animals with a hard exoskeleton, jointed legs and segmented body.
IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Molluscs: The largest marine phylum; invertebrate animals, many of which have shells.

Viviparous with yolk-sac: Also known as aplacental viviparous and previously known as ovoviviparous/ovoviviparity; it is the production of eggs that are fertilised and hatch inside the female shark but the embryos lack a placental connection to the oviduct or uterus and so do not feed off the mother.
Polychaete worms: Multi-segmented worms living in all environments in the world's oceans.
Trawl fisheries: Fisheries that pull a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats.