Schoolshark or tope (Galeorhinus galeus)
| Fr | Requin-ha; Milandre |
| Sp | Cazon; Casso (Catalunya); Ca mari (Menorca); Carallo (Valencia) |
| It | Canesca; Canuso (Naples); Muzzolu (Palermo); Can da denti (Venice) |
| Ma | Kelb il-bahar; Mazzola |
Diagnosis
A moderately-sized, slender shark with a long conical snout and bland colouring; anterior nasal flaps not prominently developed; eyes horizontally elongate with lower nictitating eyelids; spiracles fairly prominent; upper labial furrows long. Teeth in both jaws essentially similar, bladelike with anterior three erect and the rest oblique; several small cusplets on outer margin. First dorsal fin broadly triangular, its origin over or just behing the pectoralfree tips. Second dorsal fin much smaller than 1st and about subequal to anal fin. No interdorsal ridge or precaudal pits; prominently-developed terminal caudal lobe. Dorsal colour grey to mid grey-brown dorsally, fading gradually to paler ventrally; no prominent fin markings either dorsally or ventrally.
Size
Exceptionally to 195cm but typically to about 170cm; size at birth between 30 - 40 cm TL.
Status and Distribution
Mediterranean Sea: Occasional or infrequent; cosmopolitan. Entire Mediterranean, including Adriatic Sea and Sea of Marmara but not Black Sea.
Biology
A coastal and pelagic shark of temperate continental shelf waters where it ranges from the surfline down to 470m; also readily penetrating shallow bays and the mouths of esturaries over muddy and sand substrates in turbid waters, but not into freshwater. Tope often move in small schools, hunting just above the substrate but infrequently encountered right at the surface; they are known to undertake journeys of substantial distance as shown by various tagging studies in European Seas. Some examples tagged off the British Isles (Western Scotland) have been recovered off Algeria (moving 3200km over 9-years at liberty; see Sutcliffe [1994]) and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, possibly a migration of pregnant females to southern pupping grounds, whilst yet others have made rather limited movements and restricted themselves to northern European seas (northwards of 45N). The structure of Northeastern Atlanto-Mediterranean stocks is poorly understood but clearly interchange occurs over a wide range. In higher latitudes the en-mass migration of these sharks is predictably poleward in summer and southerly in winter, but such movements in the Mediterranean are yet to be demonstrated. Mediterranean movements are probably manifested more longitudinally or by virtue of seasonal depth-ranging. In all likelihood the presence of these sharks in Mediterranean waters is correlated in some cases to to pupping or in others to simple nomadicy, as they are clearly less abundant or spatio-temporally regular in the region than elsewhere in the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean (or indeed in other areas globally). In some regions there is a degree of sexual and size-related segregation although again this remains to be demonstrated in the Mediterranean. Tope are active predators upon a wide range of bony fish including clupeids such as sardines; gadoids including whiting and ling; damselfishes, wrasses, flatfish and gobies; scombroids including mackerel and scad; also cephalopods such as squid; benthic invertebrates including gastropods, crustaceans, echinoderms and annelid worms; occasionally small batoids or other elasmobranchs. Juveniles may prey more heavily upon invertebrates. Ovoviviparous, bearing litters of 6 to 52 young; commonly 25 - 35; gestation time 1 year. Females mature after about 130cm and males after about 120cm; life expectancy in females may exceed 20 years. Parturition apparently occurs throughouth the Mediterranean, with pregnant females giving birth in Sicilian Channel waters and elsewhere (at least as far east as the island of Rhodes in the Aegean) during summer. [an error occurred while processing this directive]