Guitar rays (wedgefishes and guitarfishes)

How it lives

Guitarfishes and wedgefishes have bodies between those of a shark and a ray, with a shark-like tail and a triangular, guitar-shaped head. They give birth to live young: a bowmouth guitarfish has litters of 2 to 11 pups about 45 cm long. Bottlenose wedgefish live from the shallows down to about 60 m, on soft bottoms and near coral reefs, and bowmouth guitarfish from 3 to 90 m. A bowmouth has a row of large spines above the eye and on the shoulder that can be used for butting. New Caledonia: GBIF holds records of bottlenose wedgefish (Rhynchobatus australiae, mostly recent observations) and bowmouth guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma), plus older specimens filed under Rhynchobatus djiddensis.

Where it goes

Movements are poorly described in the sources checked. These rays live close to the bottom, inshore, over sand and mud and near coral reefs. The bowmouth guitarfish is sometimes found in the water column.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

Among the most threatened marine fish. A 2019 assessment found that all but one of 16 wedgefish and giant guitarfish species face an extremely high risk of extinction, mainly from fishing for meat and fins, and said they have overtaken sawfishes as the most imperilled marine fish families. The bottlenose wedgefish and the bowmouth guitarfish are both Critically Endangered (IUCN, assessed December 2018) and both are on CITES Appendix II. Rhynchobatus djiddensis is also Critically Endangered. Australia is described as a lifeboat for several of these species because fishing pressure there is low. No population figure for New Caledonia was found.