Longfin catshark

Apristurus herklotsi (FOWLER, 1934), © FAO, www.fish-base.org

​Ah, it happened again! A rarely talked about shark has little info about them known! Well, that won’t stop The Fins United Initiative from teaching you about the longfin catshark (Apristurus herklotsi).

​As you might have guessed, Apristurus herklotsi is a poorly known deepwater catshark. They have been recorded from the Northwest and Western Central Pacific on the upper continental slopes and oceanic ridges there. As you can imagine by the description of “deepwater,” they do indeed like deep water- they’ve been observed at 1706 to 2953 ft (520 to 900 m) depth. Like other deepwater animals, they are taken as bycatch of deepwater trawl fisheries in their region. This is especially worrisome because practically nothing is known of its biology or catch rates. Insufficient information has become available to assess the species beyond Data Deficient (DD) by the IUCN.

​WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THIS ANIMAL?

GLOSSARY

• IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature.

SAY HELLO!

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

SHORT-TAILED RIVER STINGRAY

CUBAN CHIMAERA

GREY BAMBOO SHARK