Sharks

Velvet belly lanternshark

Etmopterus spinax

A small shark of the deep that glows faintly in the dark. It keeps to its own depths, and no sighting is a promise.

VulnerableIn 17 Atlas countries

Vulnerable (IUCN, assessed 2020) means the species faces a high risk of extinction in the wild, mainly because deep-sea fishing catches it and it breeds slowly.

Velvet belly lanternshark swimming just above a dark seabed, with a violet sheen along its flank — Photo: Viktor V. Grøtan, iNaturalist, CC BY

Velvet belly lanternshark over a gravelly seabed, its large bright eye visible — Photo: Vsevolod Rudyi, iNaturalist, CC BY

Velvet belly lanternshark seen from above on a dark, shelly seabed — Photo: Viktor V. Grøtan, iNaturalist, CC BY

Photos show the species, not always the places on this page.

Length

Up to about 60 cm (24 in), and few are longer than 45 cm (18 in) (FishBase, Wikipedia). A study in Iceland measured one of 66 cm (26 in), the largest confirmed

Weight

Up to about 850 g (30 oz) (FishBase)

Next to a person

About as long as an adult forearm and hand, and lighter than a bag of sugar

What it eats

Small fish, squid and crustaceans (FishBase). Young sharks feed mainly on krill and small fish, and adults take more squid and shrimp (Wikipedia). In Icelandic waters, fish made up about 82 percent of the diet by weight, crustaceans 11 percent and squid 7 percent.

Around people

Deep-sea, rarely met

How it lives

A bottom-living shark of the outer shelf and upper slope, found at depths of about 70 to 2,490 m (230 to 8,170 ft) and usually at 200 to 500 m (FishBase). Pups develop in eggs inside the mother and are born live, in litters of about 6 to 20. Newborns are about 12 to 14 cm long, and the reproductive cycle takes two to three years (Wikipedia). In Iceland, females were half mature at about 50 cm and males at about 45 cm. It has many light-making organs that give off a blue-green glow visible at 3 to 4 m (10 to 13 ft).

Where it goes

It prefers a narrow temperature band. In Iceland it was found mostly at 400 to 500 m, in water of about 6.3 to 8.0 C, in the south and west only. Long migrations were not described in the sources I read.

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

Worldwide: Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (assessed in 2020, FishBase). Wikipedia reports a decline of almost 20 percent between 1970 and 1998 to 2004 in some areas, and notes that it is often caught as bycatch and discarded with very high mortality. FishBase rates its resilience as very low, with a population doubling time of over 14 years. In Iceland, a survey from 2010 to 2021 found no significant decline.

Meet it respectfully

This shark lives mostly below normal dive depth, so a meeting is a rare chance event. If you do see one, stay calm, keep your distance and use light gently. Never chase, touch, feed or bait it, and follow your guide and local rules. No sighting is ever a promise.

Fun fact

Tap the bulb to light it up.

Sources for this page

Facts checked 5 October 2026. Photos: Unsplash licence, or Creative Commons as shown on each photo.

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