Squatina squatina (Linnaeus, 1758)

Iglésias, Samuel P., Bergot, Patricia, Breton, Pascal, Brunelle, Stéphanie, Camusat, Mathieu, Causse, Romain, Charbonnel, Éric, Chevaldonné, Pierre, Cordier, Yves, Cosquer, Paul, Cuillandre, Jean-Pierre, Curd, Amelia, Dubas, Rémy, Duhau, Muriel, Derrien-Courtel, Sandrine, Devique, Gabriel, Dixneuf, Stéphane, Duhamel, Erwan, Farque, Pierre-André, Francour, Patrice, Fontana, Yann, Gamon, Adelaïde, Gicqueau, Charly, Goascoz, Nicolas, Hassani, Sami, Jadaud, Angélique, Kopp, Dorothée, Lamour, Laure, Bris, Sylvain Le, Lévèque, Laurent, Liger, Pablo, Lorance, Pascal, Louisy, Patrick, Maran, Vincent, Méhault, Sonia, Metral, Luisa, Morin-Repinçay, Alizée, Mouchel, Olivier, Pere, Anthony, Quéro, Jean-Claude, Renoult, Julien P., Roche, François, Schweyer, Livier, Spitz, Jérôme, Thiriet, Pierre & Thomas, Wilfried, 2020, French ichthyological records for 2018, Cybium 44 (4), pp. 285-307 : 288

Squatina squatina (Linnaeus, 1758)

An Angelshark, Squatinidae ( Fig. 2B ), was captured on 10 Mar. 2018 by a bottom trawler from Le Guilvinec. It was collected in the Celtic Sea, close to the Saint George’s Channel, off Pembrokeshire ( Wales, UK), at 51.3810 / 51.4823 °N, –5.5248 / –5.5603 °W, at 100 m depth. The living specimen was killed by fishermen for their own consumption. The individual, a female, measured 126 cm, TL and weighed 26 kg. Recorded by A. Gamon. This Critically Endangered species ( Ferretti et al., 2015) is now virtually extinct in most European waters (e.g. Bom et al., 2020) and only occasional individuals are caught, mostly during the winter, in Saint George’s Channel. The withholding of this specimen by the fishermen, although aware of its fishing ban by EU Regulation and the prohibition of keeping a specimen on board, and despite the presence of a fishery observer, is indicative of a sadly frequent situation, where fishermen keep for their own consumption protected species on the brink of extinction. This example confirms the ineffectiveness of specific fishing bans in a context of multispecies fishing. It suggests that the current regulation is insufficient to prevent the extirpation of the Angelshark from continental European waters and that banning fishing gears susceptible to catching the species in the few areas where it still occurs is urgently needed for the conservation of this species.

Figures

Figure 2. – Significant French ichthyo- logical records for 2018. A: Hexanchus griseus,> 4 m TL, 3 Nov. 2018 (white arrow = full term aborted individual ~65 cm TL); B: Squatina squatina, 126 cm TL, 10 Mar. 2018; C: Gymnu- ra altavela, ~30 cm TL, 23 Apr. 2018, (photograph: Don Jacques Pompa); D: Acipenser sturio, 115 cm TL, 4 Jun. 2018 (photograph: Pierre Nicolas), E: Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, ~60 cm TL, 9 Jun. 2018 (beached); F: Dalo- phis imberbis, ~40 cm TL, 3 Mar. 2018 (beached).