Relatively common where it occurs, kitefin sharks are usually solitary in nature but may form small groups.

The kitefin shark inhabits depths too great for it to be a danger to humans.

The kitefin shark has a slender body with a very short, blunt snout, large eyes, and thick lips.

Additional common names used for the kitefin shark include black shark and darkie Charlie.

This is exemplified by the rapid stock depletion and collapse of the Azores kitefin shark fishery.

A powerful and versatile deepwater predator, the short, robust jaws of the kitefin shark give it an enormously strong bite.

The kitefin shark is fished commercially for its meat, skin, and liver oil, primarily by Portugal and Japan.

Dalatiidae (kitefin sharks)

Dalatias licha (Kitefin shark)

The presence of fast-swimming fishes in its diet suggests the kitefin shark may scavenge, or have some other means of capturing faster prey.

Reproduction in the kitefin shark is aplacental viviparous, with the embryos hatching inside the uterus and being sustained to term by yolk.

Dalatiidae is a family of sharks in the order Squaliformes, commonly known as kitefin sharks (which also refers specifically to the species Dalatias licha).

Fisheries operating off Portugal and Japan are responsible for most commercial landings of the kitefin shark, generally as bycatch in bottom trawls and on hook-and-line.

One recorded individual was found severely gouged by kitefin sharks (Dalatias licha), which are capable of excising plugs of flesh, cookiecutter-like, from larger animals.

The kitefin shark has an almost circumglobal range in tropical and warm-temperature waters, consisting of a number of widely separated populations with likely little interchange between them.

The kitefin shark inhabits the outer continental shelves and upper continental slopes, and is also found around oceanic islands and seamounts.

Like the related cookiecutter shark, the kitefin shark is also capable of excising chunks of flesh from animals larger than itself, including other sharks and whales.

Known predators of the blackmouth catshark include the kitefin shark (Dalatias licha) and the European flying squid (Todarodes sagittatus).

The kitefin shark or seal shark (Dalatias licha) is a species of dogfish shark in the family Dalatiidae, and the only species in its genus.

Cladistic studies have consistently found that the closest relatives of the kitefin shark are the cookiecutter sharks (Isistius), with which they share several dentitional, skeletal, and muscular similarities.

The oldest fossil teeth that definitively belong to the kitefin shark date to the Middle Eocene epoch, such as those recovered from Bortonian-stage deposits (43.0-37.0 Ma) in New Zealand.

Stocky and dark brown in color, the Portuguese dogfish can be distinguished from similar-looking species (such as the kitefin shark, Dalatias licha) by the small spines in front of its dorsal fins.

After 1991, kitefin shark catches declined precipitously to under 15 tons annually which, along with a drop in the global price of liver oil, led to the fishery becoming unprofitable by the end of the decade.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the kitefin shark as Near Threatened worldwide, and as Vulnerable in the northeastern Atlantic in light of documented population declines.

Seal Shark - Resembles a seal except for a jaw full of shark-like teeth.

The kitefin shark or seal shark (Dalatias licha) is a species of dogfish shark in the family Dalatiidae, and the only species in its genus.