Untitled - Alaska Resources Library

Order Squaliformes
Family Echinorhinidae — Bramble Sharks
Echinorhinus cookei Pietschmann, 1928. Prickly Shark. To 4 m (13.1 ft) TL (Miller and Lea 1972). Moolach
Beach, Oregon (Pearcy et al. 1985) to Michoacán, Mexico (Aguirre et al. 2002), and Gulf of California
(Eschmeyer and Herald 1983) and Costa Rica (Robertson and Allen 2002) to Chile (Kong and Meléndez
1991). At depths of 4–1,100 m (13–3,608 ft) (min.: Ebert 2003; max. : Robertson and Allen 2002).
Family Squalidae — Dogfish Sharks
Squalus acanthias Linnaeus, 1758. Piked Dogfish or Spiny Dogfish. To about 200 cm (78.7 in) TL (Compagno
in Carpenter 2003). Pacific and Atlantic, except not in tropical waters; in North Pacific from Yellow Sea
off China to Bering Sea and southeastern Chukchi Sea, Alaska to Gulf of California (Mecklenburg et al.
2002). Coastal, inshore and offshore, intertidal zone to 1,244 m (4,105 ft) (min.: Compagno 1984; max.:
Mecklenburg et al. 2002) and perhaps to 1,446 m (4,744 ft) (Compagno in Carpenter 2003).
Family Etmopteridae — Lantern Sharks
Centroscyllium nigrum Garman, 1899. Combtooth Dogfish or Pacific Black Dogfish. To about 51 cm (20 in)
TL (Eschmeyer and Herald 1983). Southern California (Eschmeyer and Herald 1983) and northern
Baja California (LACM 38584.001) to Chile (Eschmeyer and Herald 1983) (central Chile; Sielfeld and
Vargas 1996), Cocos Island, Islas Galápagos, and Hawaii (Eschmeyer and Herald 1983). At depths of
269–1,170 m (883–3,838 ft) (min.: Long 1994; max.: Eschmeyer and Herald 1983).
Family Somniosidae — Sleeper Sharks
Somniosus pacificus Bigelow & Schroeder, 1944. Mud Shark or Pacific Sleeper Shark. Reported to reach 7.6 m
(25 ft) TL (Clemens and Wilby 1946), but largest adequately documented individual is 4.4 m (14.5 ft;
Ebert 2003). The length of 6 m (19.8 ft) reported by de Astarloa et al. (1999) is based on Somniosus
antarcticus (D. A. Ebert, pers. comm. to M. L.). Japan to Bering Sea to Pacific Ocean off southern Baja
California (Compagno 1984); also reported to Chukchi Sea and possibly to East Siberian and Beaufort
seas by Compagno (1984). Following Compagno (1984), Mecklenburg et al. (2002) also reported range
to the Arctic Ocean. Evidently, however, this part of the range has no solid documentation. Benz et al.
(2004) described a dead sleeper shark that washed up on the beach at Point Hope, eastern Chukchi Sea,
but it is possible the shark drifted there from the Bering Sea (C.W.M.). Reports of S. pacificus as far south
as Pisco, Peru (Chirichigno and Vélez 1998) are questionable and may represent Somniosus antarcticus
(D. A. Ebert, pers. comm. to M. L.). On or near bottom, occasionally at surface or in intertidal zone, to
about 2,008 m (6,626 ft) (min.: Bright 1959; max.: Anderson et al. 1979); at the greatest depths in the
southern part of the range.
Family Dalatiidae — Kitefin Sharks
*Euprotomicrus bispinatus (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824). Pygmy Shark. To 30.5 cm (12 in) TL (Miller and Lea
1972). Circumglobal; a few caught 500 miles off southern California (Ebert 2003) to at least Easter
Island (Pequeño 1989). Surface at night to perhaps 1,800 m (5,904 ft) or more (Ebert 2003).
Isistius brasiliensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824). Cookiecutter Shark. To 56 cm (22 in) TL (Ebert 2003).
Circumglobal; North Pacific (Nakano and Tabuchi 1990); Isla Guadalupe, northern Baja California
(Ebert 2003) to Peru (13°46'S; Chirichigno and Vélez 1998) and Islas Galápagos (Grove and Lavenberg
1997). Surface to 3,500 m (11,480 ft) (min.: Ebert 2003; max.: Compagno et al. in Fischer et al. 1995).
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