Squatina squatina (Linnaeus, 1758)
|
publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.26028/cybium/2020-444-001 |
|
persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/D8676925-FFAE-FFAF-D4A0-FBB5FB80F889 |
|
treatment provided by |
Felipe |
|
scientific name |
Squatina squatina (Linnaeus, 1758) |
| status |
|
Squatina squatina (Linnaeus, 1758) View in CoL
An Angelshark, Squatinidae ( Fig. 2B View Figure 2 ), 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.
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.