FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 51 



16. Portuguese shark (Centroscymnus ccdolepis Bocage and Capello) 



Jordan and Evcrmann, 1896-1900, p. 55. 

 Garman, 1913, p. 204. 



Description. — This shark can easily be identified by the fact that while its 

 general appearance — particularly the absence of anal fin, the situation of the ven- 

 trals far back under the second dorsal, and its rather stout form and blunt snout — 

 might lead a hasty observer to think he had caught a small Greenland shark, more 

 careful examination, by touch if not by eye, would reveal a short spine close in 

 front of each dorsal fin. The first dorsal is smaller than in any of our sharks except 

 the "Greenland," the second is about as high as the first, and the ventrals are 

 larger than either. The tail is notably short and broad and its upper lobe is notched. 

 The teeth are very different in the two jaws — narrow, pointed, and of the seizing 

 type in the upper; broader, oblong, with a notch on one side near the tip, and forming 

 a cutting edge in the lower. 



Size. — Adults run from 3 to 4 feet long, as they are caught. Garman records 

 one 44 inches long off the coast of New England, but 10 inches is the smallest we 

 find mentioned. 



Fig. 18. — Portuguese shark (Centroscymnus ctzlole-pis) . After Garman 



Color. — Described as deep chestnut brown on the belly, as well as the back. 



General range. — This rare deep-water shark, originally known from off Portugal, 

 has since been taken at various other localities. 40 Its claim to mention here rests 

 on the fact that it was once reported off Gloucester; on the specimen "taken off 

 the coast of New England," just mentioned; and on Goode and Bean's (1S96) 

 statement that it is abundant on the slopes of our offshore banks at 200 fathoms 

 and more. 



Habits. — Little is known of its habits beyond the fact that it is a deep-water 

 species regularly caught by Portuguese fishermen with hand lines, a fishery that 

 Wright (Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 4, Vol. II, 1868, p. 426) 

 describes as follows: 



Some 600 fathoms of rope were let out, the first 30 or 40 fathoms of which had fastened to 

 it at intervals of a fathom a series of small ropes, on each of which was a large hook baited with 

 a codling. This fishing tackle remained below for about two hours, when they commenced to 

 haul it in. When it arrived at the last few fathoms, they pulled in, one after another, five or six 

 specimens from 3 to 4 feet long. The species was the Centroscymnus ccelolepis Bocage and Ca- 

 pello. These sharks, as they were hauled into the boat, fell down into it like so many dead pigs. 



This species is viviparous, 13 to 16 young having been found in females caught 

 off Portugal. 



<• Known from Portugal, the Mediterranean, Madeira, Japan, the Faroes, and recently reported from Iceland by Ssemunds- 

 son (Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra Dansk naturhistorisk Forcning i Kj0benhaven [Copenhagen], Bind 74, 1922, p. 167). 



