A strange pig-faced shark has been discovered dead in the Mediterranean Sea

pigshark

It looks like any other shark in the water: a quick, gray predator with high dorsal fins protruding from its back. The angular roughshark (Oxynotus centrina) has a flat head, wide-set eyes, and a blunt, pinkish snout. It is also known as the “pig fish” in some harbors. It’s known as a ‘pig fish’ because it makes a grunting sound when it emerges from the water. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, the sharks are abundant in the Mediterranean, where their spiny dorsal fins and relatively big bodies render them vulnerable to fishing activities.

Angular roughshark populations have been declining for decades as a result of this, and the species is now classified as vulnerable (one step below “endangered” on the Red List’s scale).

The shark can be found in the East Atlantic Ocean, from Norway to South Africa . According to the IUCN, they can be found between 200 and 2,200 feet (60 to 670 meters) below the ocean’s surface and grow to be around 3.3 feet (1 meter) long.