IUCN Red List Assessment
Red List Category
DD
Data Deficient
Red List Criteria
Version
3.1
Year Assessed
2005
Assessor/s
Compagno, L.J.V.
Reviewer/s
Musick, J.A. & Fowler, S.L. (Shark Red List Authority)
Contributor/s
Justification
This assessment is based on the information published in the 2005 shark status survey (Fowler et al. 2005).
Megamouth Shark (Megachasma pelagios) is a very large pelagic filter-feeding shark and was perhaps the most spectacular discovery of a new shark in the twentieth century (Compagno 2001). Specimens are very seldom reported, thus the shark is apparently very rare throughout its range, yet likely to be increasingly taken as bycatch in oceanic and offshore littoral fisheries. At the time of writing it was known from less than 20 specimens, though its distribution is thought to be circumtropical and wide ranging. The colouration and catch records of the megamouth shark are suggestive of epipelagic rather than deepwater habitat, as is the composition of its liver oil.
Megamouth Shark (Megachasma pelagios) is a very large pelagic filter-feeding shark and was perhaps the most spectacular discovery of a new shark in the twentieth century (Compagno 2001). Specimens are very seldom reported, thus the shark is apparently very rare throughout its range, yet likely to be increasingly taken as bycatch in oceanic and offshore littoral fisheries. At the time of writing it was known from less than 20 specimens, though its distribution is thought to be circumtropical and wide ranging. The colouration and catch records of the megamouth shark are suggestive of epipelagic rather than deepwater habitat, as is the composition of its liver oil.
History
- 2000Data Deficient
