SHARKS AND RAYS FROM THE AZORES – AN ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE
- December 12th, 2011
- Biodiversity
- Print Article
Barreiros, J.P. & Gadig, O.B.F. (2011). Sharks and Rays from the Azores - A Field Guide. Instituto Açoriano de Cultura, Angra do Heroísmo.
To be presented on the 14th December (21h00) in the Centro de Ciência de Angra do Heroísmo
The main goal of this book is to offer an identification/field guide of the sharks, rays and chimaeras already registered within the Azores Archipelago. It is, by no means, a definitive book nor do we have such a pretension. It was written to be used by researchers, university professors, teachers, students of marine biology, oceanography, fisheries as well as divers, fishermen and all those who might be fond of the sea and would like to learn a little more about these magnificent animals.
The information you are about to get come from the Professional experience of the authors and from the literature produced by many outstanding researchers from all over the World, especially from European colleagues, namely Portuguese. The main diagnostic characteristics for identifying orders, families, genera and species of Azorean sharks, rays and chimaeras are presented. For each species the reader will find an illustration, the scientific name as well as most used common names in the Azores and in English language.
The authors present information morphology with additional taxonomic details whenever useful and/or necessary in order to help the reader in identifying a given species. Basic information on the biology (feeding habits; reproduction), geographic distribution, habitat, maximum known size, fisheries and conservation status are also given. Ending the text on each species there is an “Observations” entry in order to include more regional data, behaviour and especially comparative descriptions with other species not yet recorded for the Azores but whose eventual appearance must not be discarded