Angular roughshark

At first glance it hardly looks like a shark. FishBase describes it as a small, bizarre-looking shark with an unmistakable high body and bristly textured skin. The Shark Trust identification guide lists its distinguishing marks: a short, blunt snout; a compressed body that is triangular in cross-section; two large, sail-like dorsal fins, each with a spine; extremely large, vertically elongated spiracles (breathing openings) behind the eyes; and heavy ridges over the eyes covered with enlarged denticles. On colour the two sources are close: FishBase says uniformly grey to grey-brown; the Shark Trust adds dark blotches on the head and flanks and a light horizontal line below the eye. According to the Shark Trust, its family, the Oxynotidae, has five species, all recognisable at a glance by their unusually large dorsal fins. In WoRMS the accepted name is Oxynotus centrina (Linnaeus, 1758); the species sits in the order Squaliformes, family Oxynotidae, AphiaID 105914.

The communiqué publishes no rationale for Table 1; what follows is not the reason for the ban but the biology of the species. FishBase records it as a bottom-living deep-water shark of the outer continental shelf and upper slope and gives a depth range of 60–1,309 metres; the Shark Trust gives 50–780 metres. According to FishBase, its range in the eastern Atlantic runs from the Bay of Biscay to Senegal and includes the Mediterranean. Its main food is bottom-dwelling worms: FishBase lists polychaete worms and sipunculan worms as principal prey, with bony fishes, crustaceans and echinoderms as secondary prey; both sources write that it is thought to be a suction feeder. It reproduces slowly. FishBase records it as ovoviviparous without a placenta, meaning the eggs hatch inside the mother, with about 7 or 8 young per litter; the Shark Trust reports litters of 7–23 pups. FishBase’s model estimates put the species’ resilience at "very low", its minimum population doubling time at more than 14 years and its vulnerability to fishing at 80 out of 100. The Shark Trust writes that the species is not targeted but is taken as bycatch in offshore bottom and pelagic trawls: its large dorsal fins and spines make it easy to snag in nets, and across much of its range its entire depth range lies within reach of fisheries. The same guide cites surveys pointing to local declines in the Mediterranean and the northeast Atlantic. In FishBase’s IUCN field (global, version 2025-2) the species is listed as Endangered (EN), assessed on 31 August 2020; the IUCN record itself is the authoritative source for the current category.

It is prohibited. The basis is communiqué no. 6/2 (2024/21). In the official text the relevant article is a single sentence: "ARTICLE 6 - (1) Fishing for the species listed in Table 1 is completely prohibited, both in the seas and in inland waters." The table is headed "Species for which fishing is completely prohibited", and in the text published in the Resmî Gazete of 11/8/2024 this species appears as the row "Domuz köpekbalığı / Oxynotus centrina". The article carries no condition, no period and no exception. The words "tesadüf" (by chance) and "kazara" (accidentally) do not appear in the full official text, and there is no separate procedure for a Table 1 species caught by accident. The note "if caught by chance, return it to the water unharmed" in the "Exception" field of our records is a record note of our own, not a quotation from the communiqué. Still, if an angular roughshark ends up on your line, we recommend releasing it without harm; that is an ethical recommendation, not a legal rule. What binds is the official text in force itself: the communiqué published in Resmî Gazete no. 32629 of 11/8/2024, together with its version as updated by the amendment published in Resmî Gazete no. 32872 of 16/4/2025.