Abstract The blackmouth catshark, Galeus melastomus (Rafinesque, 1810), is a deep-sea shark found on the continental slopes and upper slopes of both sides of the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. It has a fierce look with the bold black mouth, which is where it gets its name.
A Stealthy Hunter
The blackmouth catshark is a stealthy, bloodthirsty predator well-dressed for its dark depths. It is designed for poor light visibility, and it has a Medieval yet shockingly precise sensor array that any fish could use to detect minute changes in the vibrations of water. The diet of the shark includes small fish, crustaceans and cephalopods that it captures with its sharp teeth.
A Slow-Paced Lifestyle
This is in contrast to several other shark species, which can be quite lethargic. It spends hours at rest on the bottom of the ocean conserving energy and essentially waiting until food comes it its way. Because of their sedentary life style and cryptic colorations, they are hard to detect.
Conservation Concerns
The blackmouth catshark is not considered to be at risk, but it does face a number of threats, such as overfishing and degradation of its habitat. Their habitat can be damaged, and these fish themselves may even be directly targeted using the destructive fishing practice of bottom trawling. On top of that, their populations are threatened by pollution and climate change.
Conservation Efforts
In order to aid the blackmouth catshark and other creatures that call these waters home, several conservation measures are in place:
Marine Protected Areas: Designating specific places to protect habitats and mitigate human stress.
Implementing Sustainable Fishing Techniques: Encouraging fishing methods that do the least damage to marine ecosystems, such as selective gear like hook and line or traps/pots/creels, limited entry systems for commercial fisheries so there are not too many fishers all working the same stock simultaneously possible reduction in quotas etc.
Restore habitats: Restore degraded seagrass beds and coral reefs to ensure critical sheltering/foraging grounds for the marine species.
Public Awareness: Increases awareness about marine conservation and the plight of marine wildlife through education.
Conservation efforts will ensure that future generations of explorers continue to have the opportunity to follow in the mazagon, gaze into its black and beady eyes before sending it back down safely with data or rig repair well underway. Responsible fishing and awareness are ways to keep the blackmouth catshark alive and other similar marine creatures.