The pale ghost shark (''Hydrolagus bemisi'') is a shortnose

chimaera Chimaeras are cartilaginous fish in the order Chimaeriformes , known informally as ghost sharks, rat fish, spookfish, or rabbit fish; the last three names are not to be confused with rattails, Opisthoproctidae, or Siganidae, respectively. At ...

of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Chimaeridae The Chimaeridae, or short-nosed chimaeras, are a family of cartilaginous fish. They resemble other chimaeras in general form and habits, but have short, rounded snouts, without the modifications found in related families. Many species have lon ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

waters.

Taxonomy

This species was first described by Dominique A. Didier in 2002. Although it had been recognised, the description of this species was regarded as being important because of the increase in the commercial fishing of chimaera.

Description

Estimations of growth and age have only been attempted for a quarter of the species known.Finucci, B, Cheok, J, Ebert, DA, Herman, K, Kyne, PM, Dulvy, NK. Ghosts of the deep- Biodiversity, fisheries, and extinction risk of ghost sharks, Fish Fish. 2021; 22: 391-412. https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12526 This species has a medium-sized body with a tapered whip-like tail. Its length is up to 1.12 m. It can be distinguished from '' H. novaezealandiae'' and '' H. homonycteris'' as it has a pale silvery colour with no patternation or spots. Estimates suggest that they can live between 15–22 years, although the lack of data still makes this unreliable.

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand and can commonly be found from the West Norfolk Ridge to the Campbell Plateau at depths of between 400 and 1100 m.

Conservation status

In June 2018 the New Zealand

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

classified the pale ghost shark as "Not Threatened" with the qualifier "Conservation Dependent " under the

New Zealand Threat Classification System The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand. The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had some ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pale ghost shark pale ghost shark Endemic marine fish of New Zealand Taxa named by Dominique A. Didier Dagit pale ghost shark