New images of our Cabinet of curiosities of the abyss. I hope you like this little stand of sea monsters from the depths, real! collected and worked by ourselves. Contact us if you would like to get something similar or if you have other abyssal monsters from other oceans that interest us!

The species observed are two Viper fish, a Dragon fish, one sawtooth-Snaggletooth or demon fish, a Lantern fish and two rat tail fish. All accidentally caught and coming from very deep waters. Below images of the preserved lantern fish (Click to enlarge the images)

​And now the spectacular images of the demon fish dried and preserved in taxidermy. A true sea monster with its huge sawtooth jaw. They are fresh images of the last work for my own exhibition.

​Remember that you can see all our pictures of deep-sea fish in high quality and higher resolution by visiting our social network of images on Flickr

Notes:
Borostomias antarcticus, Snaggletooth, Lampanyctus crocodilus,Lanternfish, Nezumia aequalis, Grenadier Rat tail fish, Chauliodus sloani, Viperfish, Stomias boa, Dragonfish, Trachyrincus scabrus. Cabinet of curiosities. Dried fish. Taxidermy.

Today I will share information about the accidental capture of this strange shark that has been used for its documentation and subsequent conservation through Taxidermy and that will be offered for sale to the public in one of the platforms that we eventually use (Ebay, Catawiki o Etsy)

* Clarify that all the fish we collect come from accidental catches of discards from professional deep-sea fishing trawlers that, due to the nature of these fishing gear, do not survive extraction and cannot be returned to the sea alive. Therefore we consider our activity as a recycling process for those discards that would otherwise be thrown into the sea or the container.

Full-length photos of the captured shark Somniosus rostratus. Click to enlarge the images:

DATA OF THIS SHARK SPECIES AND ITS CAPTURE:
Somniosus rostratus is a species of deep-sea shark, from the Dalatiidae family. In general it is considered a rare species, rarely found, and of which there is hardly any information.
This specimen was captured in December 2018 by the area of ​​the Canal de Ibiza (Mediterranean Sea).
The depth of the catch was not detailed, but taking into account the depth margins that this fishing vessel was working on, it should be between 550 and 850 meters.

FOOD AND REPRODUCTION:
Very little is known about their diet, in this case I did a small stomach inspection but their food was too digested to determine anything in particular. In theory it is assumed that it feeds on other fish, cephalopods and other deep invertebrates as well as other similar sharks of the same family but other more common species, such as the Dalatias licha.
In terms of reproduction, it is an Ovoviviparous species (viviparous to live in an accent), that is to say that the organism lays eggs but they remain inside until the embryos finish developing and then hatch.

According to Wikipedia: "Its measure at birth is between 21 and 28 cm in total length. A fecundity of at least 8 embryos has been described although unpublished data indicate that it can exceed ten embryos per pregnancy." In our case the photos speak for themselves and it is observed that in the same uterus there were embryos of different sizes. * Click to enlarge in the images.

SIZE AND MANDIBLE - SHARK DENTING:
Our shark was just under a meter. The size of this species in general is said not to exceed 138 cm long, or at least no larger catches have been documented. Do not confuse with other similar species of sleeper shark that reach huge sizes up to 7 meters (see Greenland sleeper shark). In fact, this specific species is commonly called a little sleeper, in reference to the fact that it is the smallest species of its kind.

I will not stop in his morphology because for that there are the detailed photos that I expose, as well as his teeth, which I have tried to photograph in detail to have an idea below: * Click on the images to enlarge them

SHARK TAXIDERMY PROCESS:
At this point, little more to say, we ended up recycling this extraordinary piece using taxidermy so that I finally went to the showcases of an enthusiastic collector of the marine world, biologist, or museum for exposure to the public. The work has been complicated but finally we have an acceptable quality result in how complicated it is to do this type of work: * Click to see the photos in large

THE SHARK'S FLESH:
So that nobody says that we do not take full advantage of what we take, there is no lack of detail to say that we take advantage of their meat in the kitchen ... experimentally, I can now say that I am one of the few people in the world who has tried the meat of Somniosus rostratus although they subsequently recommended me not to do so, because it is a species that is little known at food level and there are similar species that have turned out to have some degree of toxicity so it is not advisable to venture without sufficient knowledge , so just in case you don't do these things at home hehe. However, in my personal experience I must say that it tasted pretty good to me, very similar to the meat of Dalatias licha, which I have also tasted on more than one occasion.

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Links for sales: 
► LINK ON  CATAWIKI    
► LINK ON EBAY
► LINK ON ETSY 
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