Recently, a group of Italian sailors accidentally discovered a creature with a strange shape that they had never seen for many years at sea. The animal was found floating in the water in Darsena Medicea, Portoferraio town on the Italian island of Elba.
The strange-looking creature was picked up ashore by Italian sailors. Photo: Newsflash.
The group of people quickly moved to pick up the animal and were surprised when before their eyes was a creature with the shape of a shark but with big black eyes as well as nostrils quite similar to a pig’s nose. In addition, it has a sharp and angular dorsal fin, different from normal sharks.
After examination, experts said this is an Angular shark (scientific name is Oxynotus centrina). Sometimes this species is also called the pig-faced shark.
They are listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature – an international organization headquartered in Switzerland – as a rare and endangered species.
Angular sharks usually live at a depth of 700m above sea level, in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. They can also appear in Mozambique waters. At birth, Angular sharks are about 25cm long, the common size when mature is nearly 1m. However, there are still some that can reach a length of about 1.5 m.
Yuri Tiberto, an employee at Elba Aquarium (Italy), said: “This fish is sometimes called a pigfish because when brought to shore, it makes a sound like a pig.”
“The waters of the Tuscan archipelago are an area of biodiversity. It is not surprising that this fish was discovered here. I once tried keeping an Angular shark at the aquarium but discovered that this species did not like it. suitable for captivity,” Tiberto added.
It is known that the sailors took the animal to the harbor office for research and then released it back into the natural environment. Living in deep water, but every few years, there is a time when the pig-faced shark will rise above the water.
