Smooth lanternshark

How it lives

The smooth lanternshark lives on the continental and island slopes, most often at about 400 to 700 m. Depth records run from the surface to about 1,100 m, and possibly to nearly 2,000 m, but the deepest records are uncertain. It is a blackish-brown shark with blade-like teeth in the lower jaw. It gives birth to live young. Males live at least 13 years and females at least 17 years.

Where it goes

It may move up and down the water column each day, which is called diel vertical migration. Adults live mostly on the deep slope, while open-ocean records exist from the surface to about 710 m. Beyond that, the sources I read do not describe its movements.

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

Least Concern worldwide (IUCN, assessed 2019). It occurs across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, from Portugal to Namibia in the eastern Atlantic, from the northern Gulf of Mexico to Argentina in the west, and off South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The distribution is wide but patchy. It is caught by accident in longline fisheries in the eastern Atlantic and off Japan, mostly young sharks, and most are discarded. Some are dried and salted for food or made into fishmeal. The FishBase map is computer-generated and unreviewed.