Description

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Anal spines: 0. A slender weasel shark with a long, broadly rounded snout, large curved, saw-edged teeth in the upper jaw, and hooked lower teeth protruding from mouth; gill slits long; fins strongly curved (Ref. 5578). Light grey or bronzy with no prominent markings (Ref. 5578).

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Elasmobranchii

Order: Carcharhiniformes

Family: Hemigaleidae

Genus: Hemipristis

Species: Hemipristis elongata (Klunzinger, 1871)

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

A coastal species, found inshore and offshore on the continental and insular shelves (Ref. 244). Feeds on sharks, rays and bony fishes (Ref. 244); also cephalopods (Ref. 13567). Viviparous (Ref. 50449). Thought to be potentially dangerous because of its large, fearsome teeth and shallow-water habitat, but has not been recorded in an attack on people (Ref. 244). Caught regularly by inshore gillnet, bottom trawl (occasionally) and longline fisheries (Ref.58048). Regularly taken in artisanal fisheries (Ref. 13567). Utilized fresh for human consumption, liver processed for vitamins, fins used in the oriental shark fin trade, and by-products processed into fishmeal (Ref. 244). Most adults below 200 cm (Ref. 30573).

Habitat

demersal