Japanese angelshark

The Japanese angelshark, scientific name Squatina japonica, is a shark in the family Squatinidae, described by Pieter Bleeker in 1858, found in the cooler waters of the northwestern Pacific around eastern Honshu, Taiwan, the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. It lives on continental shelves over sandy bottoms near rocky reefs, usually in shallow water but down to about 300 meters, and grows to roughly 1.5 meters or more with the flattened body and enlarged, wing-like pectoral and pelvic fins typical of its family. It has oval, widely spaced eyes, crescent-shaped spiracles, large barbeled nostrils, a row of thorns along the dorsal midline, and a light-to-dark brown upper body densely covered in squarish dark spots over a white, darker-mottled underside. The IUCN lists it as Critically Endangered, with population declines of 50 percent or more attributed to intensive trawling, pollution and the species' slow reproductive rate. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/