Blackchin guitarfish

The blackchin guitarfish is a large, flattened ray-like fish that can reach 242 cm long, with a common length around 150 cm. Its long, wedge-shaped snout and guitar-shaped body make it easy to recognise resting on the seabed.

Also known as: granulated guitarfish, halavi ray, madagascar guitarfish

This species is very hard to tell apart from the common guitarfish underwater, since they share the same range and a similar shape and colour. The features that separate them, such as eye size and snout ridge shape, are too fine to judge without a close, still photo, so treat a sighting of either as a guitarfish unless you can compare a clear close-up.

The body is plain brown above and white below, with a broad, triangular snout that gives the fish its guitar-like shape. A black blotch marks the snout, more obvious in young fish than in adults. Short thorns run along the inner edge of the eyes, the shoulders, and down the spine and tail.

Lives on the continental shelf over sandy and muddy seabeds, from about 9 to 100 m deep. It is found in the eastern Atlantic and in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, usually resting on the bottom in coastal waters.

Listed as Endangered, this species is under heavy pressure from trawling, gillnets, and bycatch in shrimp fisheries. It is especially valued for its fins. It also gathers seasonally near the coast to breed. That leaves it exposed to fishing at just the wrong time. It has disappeared from parts of the northern Mediterranean where it was once common.

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  Banded Guitarfish

  Zapteryx exasperata

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  Eastern Shovelnose Ray

  Aptychotrema rostrata

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  Giant Guitarfish

  Glaucostegus typus

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  Guitarfish

  guitarfish

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  Halavi's Guitarfish

  Glaucostegus halavi

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  Shovelnose Guitarfish

  Pseudobatos productus