Porbeagle

How it lives

A stout, fast shark of cool and cold seas. It is most common over food-rich banks on the outer continental shelf, and also occurs near shore and in the open ocean. It is usually found between the surface and 300 m, and has been recorded down to 1,360 m. It can live in water from about -1 to 23 degrees C, most often 5 to 10 degrees C in the north-west Atlantic. It is warmer than the sea around it. Females have litters of about four pups, usually after 8 to 9 months, and probably breed every year. Females mature at about 12 to 18 years and males at about 6 to 11. In the North Atlantic the age reached is at least 26 years, and in the Southern Hemisphere probably 65 years. Porbeagles have been seen wrapping themselves in kelp, which may be play.

Where it goes

Porbeagles make seasonal moves, generally along the continental shelves, coming inshore or to the surface in summer and wintering offshore in deeper water. Tagged sharks have travelled up to about 1,500 km between Newfoundland and Massachusetts, and over 2,000 km from the UK to Norway, Denmark and Spain. One shark tagged off Ireland was later found off Canada, about 4,000 km away. Southern Hemisphere sharks are separate from northern ones, and their movements are little known.

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

IUCN rates the porbeagle Vulnerable worldwide (assessed 2018). Regionally the picture is worse: it is assessed as Endangered in the north-west Atlantic and Critically Endangered in the north-east Atlantic and the Mediterranean (CMS). Fisheries for the meat and fins caused stocks to collapse in the eastern North Atlantic in the 1950s and the western North Atlantic in the 1960s. It is listed on CITES Appendix II and on CMS Appendix II, since 2008. Southern Hemisphere populations are poorly known.