Pacific Angelshark

The Pacific angelshark, Squatina californica, is a species of angelshark found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from southeastern Alaska to the Gulf of California and separately from Ecuador to Chile, where it occupies shallow coastal waters over sandy flats near rocky reefs and kelp forests. It has a flattened body with enlarged pectoral and pelvic fins, cone-shaped barbels on its snout, and brown or gray coloring with dark markings, reaching a maximum length of about 1.5 meters. An ambush predator that feeds mainly on bony fish and squid, it buries itself in the seafloor by day and is more active at night, remaining at a chosen ambush site for several days before moving on, and it reproduces ovoviviparously, with females typically bearing about six young each spring. It poses little danger to humans unless provoked, though a gillnet fishery targeting it off Santa Barbara collapsed from overfishing between 1976 and 1994, and the IUCN lists the species as Vulnerable. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/