African Lanternshark

About the African Lanternshark

The African lantern shark is a small shark, usually about 30 cm (11.8 in) long, found in the western coast of Africa. It belongs to the family Etmopteridahe.

Biology and Behaviour

The African lanternshark has a blackish-grey body covered with placoid scales and smooth-edged upper teeth with long cusps. Like other lantern sharks, they have light-producing photophores on their body, presumably to help them camouflage and to attract prey such as fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods.

Reproduction

Very little is known about their biology but they seem to be ovoviviparous. Eggs hatch inside the female before being released. The total body length at maturation is 19–23 cm (7.5–9 in) for males, and 24 cm (9.4 in) for females.

Habitat

The species lives in deep water on the upper continental slope, near the bottom, at depths of 300 to 1,000 m (984–3,280 ft), but occurs mostly between 300 and 500 m (984–1,640 ft). It is found in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean, from Mauritania to Angola.

Conservation

The IUCN assessed the African lanternshark as Least Concern in 2020.There are concerns that they get caught as bycatch in shrimp fisheries and could become near-threatened in the near future. The impact of industrial and illegal fisheries in West Africa is also poorly understood. However, current fishing pressure is not considered a major threat because much of the species’ range is deeper than the main fishing grounds.

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