Critically Endangered
Blackchin guitarfish
Glaucostegus cemiculus
Blackchin guitarfish is a shark or ray in the family Glaucostegidae (order Rhinopristiformes) — Glaucostegus cemiculus, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
The blackchin guitarfish is plain brown above and white below, and has a black blotch on its snout, more noticeable in juveniles than adult fish.
This species grows to a length of about 180 cm (71 in), although larger fish have been reported from Guinea in West Africa and the Gulf of Gabès in the southern Mediterranean.
Range and habitat
The blackchin guitarfish is found in eastern Atlantic Ocean between about 42°N and 17°S, 19°W and 36°E. It is also found in southern and eastern Mediterranean Sea and has been recently recorded in the Black Sea. It is native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Along with the common guitarfish, they used to be plentiful in the northern Mediterranean and around the Balearic Islands, but seem to no longer be present in these areas.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The blackchin guitarfish swims slowly over sandy and muddy stretches of seabed, foraging for shrimps, crabs, other crustaceans, squid and molluscs. This fish gives birth to live young, the eggs being retained in the uterus of the female and the developing young being nourished first by a yolk sac, and later by uterine secretions.
In crisis
Its lifestyle makes it vulnerable to trawling and other fishing methods, populations seem to be declining and it is subject to intensive fishing pressure, with its fins being sold into the Asian market. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being "critically endangered". The blackchin guitarfish is a low-fecundity fish and mature individuals aggregate off the coast seasonally to deliver their young and mate.
Catches off the coast of Africa have declined also, but data on landings is in short supply. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is concerned about the future of this fish and has assessed its conservation status as being "critically endangered".
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Blackchin guitarfish is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Blackchin guitarfish, Wikidata item Q25400871. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
